A career employee at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has reportedly been placed on administrative leave after he refused to carry out firings ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Newsweek has reached out to USAID via email outside of normal working hours.
A purge of senior staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development appeared designed to silence any dissent over President Donald Trump's plans to dramatically reshape U.S. foreign aid, current and former USAID officials told Reuters.
At least 56 senior officials in the top U.S. aid and development agency have been placed on leave amid a probe into an alleged effort to thwart President Trump's orders, reports say.
USDA's Gary Washington and USAID's Jason Gray have been asked to fill vacant leadership roles at their agencies in an acting capacity.
Donald Trump pledged to create “the greatest sovereign wealth fund of them all.” His advisers think one way to do it is a government agency they bet can help mobilize hundreds of billions from Wall Street.
A dramatic purge and counter-purge at USAID played out in emails obtained by The Washington Post, as Trump’s pause on foreign aid upends humanitarian work around the world.
Hundreds of internal contractors working for the U.S. Agency for International Development are being put on unpaid leave and some are being terminated after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a sweeping freeze on U.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is not, in the scheme of things, a big part of the federal government. It dispersed $43.8 billion in the last fiscal year. That adds up to just 0.7 percent of the $6.
Current and former officials at the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development say they were invited to submit requests to exempt certain programs from the freeze.
The move, detailed in emails obtained by The Post, comes as the Trump administration seeks to radically reorient the U.S. relationship with foreign assistance.
The suspension affects humanitarian programs, counterterrorism efforts and weapons financing.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order temporarily suspending all U.S. foreign assistance programs for 90 days pending reviews to determine whether they are aligned with his policy goals.