The government of President Donald Trump is targeting the Authority of International Development USAID when converting the state apparatus and thus fundamentally questioning the USA -helped help in the United States. After the temporary stop of most development aid payments, hundreds of employees of the authority have been released or on leave and dozens of managers were released with immediate effect, as several US media reported. The new government is therefore considering dissolving the previously independent authority, which plays an important role in global development cooperation. The authority’s website was suddenly no longer accessible, as was the X-account from the USA.
Trump shouted against the authority: “It is guided by a bunch of radical crazy people. And we’ll get them out.” After that he will make a decision about USA.
Musk’s campaign
Tech billionaire and X chief Elon Musk, a close confidante Trump, who is supposed to shorten the government spending for the President, began a verbal campaign against the authority on his platform. In various posts, he disparaged USAID as “evil” and distributed unoccupied accusations and conspiracy theories about the authority.
“USA is a criminal organization. It is time to die,” wrote Musk, who has enormous influence in the government, even though he has a role as an “external consultant” on paper and has no political mandate. In another post, Musk spoke about the authority in the past: “USAID was a snake’s nest from left -wing radical Marxists who hate America.”
The richest man in the world had supported Trump in the election campaign with millions, has hardly gave away the Republican since then, gets amazing approaches and now has a lot of political power. With the committee “Department of Government Efficiency” Musk is supposed to make suggestions to shorten the US state expenditure. Now he obviously wants to create a hand of development cooperation and humanitarian aid.
Several US media, including the CNN broadcaster and the “New York Times”, reported that Musk’s committee had tried to gain access to confidential information in the USAI headquarters in the capital Washington. Two high -ranking security officers had refused and were released shortly afterwards.
A step with symbolic power
The rabid procedure at USAID exemplifies what is currently going on in many ministries and authorities. Since taking office, Trump has started to turn the state apparatus completely. Employees are killed in ministries and authorities. In an extremely unusual manner, the government also urges federal employees to quit and voluntarily clear their posts. Almost all of the ministries and authorities’ employees received an email with a corresponding “offer”.
In terms of financially and personnel, USAD plays only a small role in the entire government and its budget. However, the authority is of great importance for international development cooperation. There are above all political reasons that Musk does so much attention from the authority.
For Trump and his environment, the attack on the USA is also a step with a symbolic power: the Republican pursues an extreme America-to-date agenda, i.e. an isolationist policy that unconditionally puts in the first place. Trump regularly ruled that the United States under the leadership of the democratic predecessor government spent too much money for migrants and people all over the world and at the same time neglected its own citizens. This means that the authority USAID, the core task of which is to help weaker and disadvantaged all over the world, is a thorn in the side per se.
Just a few days after taking office, Trump stopped developing aid payments for abroad for the time being. All foreign aid programs should be checked within 90 days. According to the government, the funds for life -saving help were excluded. The work of USAID is currently largely on ice.
“Something like that only makes a despot”
Various democratic senators were concerned about the procedure: to dislike high -ranking managers throughout the authority, to end ongoing programs and to freeze ongoing foreign aid without coordinating the congress, “created a whirlpool of problems that endangered our nation and that Credibility of America undermining all over the world, “wrote several democratic members of the Federal Foreign Committee in the Senate in a joint letter to the managing USAID manager Jason Gray.
The democratic minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, wrote on the platform X: “Trump has released and intimidated employees. Now there is rumor that he wants to dissolve USAID as an independent authority.” That would be illegal and against the national interests of the United States, he warned.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy wrote on X: “I heard that Trump wanted to tighten the constitutional crisis.” A president could not simply abolish a federal authority by order. “Only a despot does something like that – who wants to steal the money of taxpayers to enrich his billionaire clique.”
