US elon musk

Elon Musk has shut down USAID, the US overseas aid agency – 17 horrified reactions

Oonagh Keating. Updated February 4th, 2025

If you were wondering how quickly Donald Trump‘s administration would pour petrol on foreign aid and throw on a lit match, that noise you just heard was the woof as it catches light.

Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) has shut down USAID – the U.S. Agency for International Development, founded by President John F. Kennedy to provide humanitaran assistance, and until now, responsible for the allocation of billions of dollars worth of aid to places in great need due to drought, famine, war and natural disasters.

USAID has – or possibly had – 60 bases all over the world, where operatives with a handle on local situations are well placed to get aid very quickly to where it’s need, while predicting changes in situations like increasing risks of famine or developing coups that may throw populations into turmoil.

It would be complete foolishness to expect Musk to do anything other than put out baseless claims to justify the takeover, and his posts on the topic do nothing to make us think otherwise. Here are two that give you the picture.

Elon Musk - USAID was a viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America

Elon Musk - We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.

Two USAID officials, director of security John Voorhees and his deputy, Brian McGill, tried to stop D.O.G.E. employees from accessing systems for which they had no security clearance, but were put on administrative leave as the President backed Musk’s latest data grab.

Democratic politicians tried to enter the USAID building, then addressed the public when they were denied it, describing developments as a constitutional crisis.

Ordinary citizens took to the streets, although not January 6th-style.

People can hardly believe the speed at which the US systems of government are being dismantled. They’ve been sharing their anger.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Article Pages: 1 2