The agency’s work should align with the “national interest and foreign policy” of the US, the secretary of state has said
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Monday that he has assumed the role of acting administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Earlier in the day, it was reported in the US media that the agency had closed its headquarters.
President Donald Trump has accused the agency’s leadership of being “radical lunatics” and proposed major changes to the organization. USAID also found itself under scrutiny by the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has become a close advisor to Trump.
“I’m the acting director of USAID,” the top US diplomat told journalists in El Salvador. He also said he had handed over day-to-day duties of running the agency to a staffer but did not identify that person.
“This is not about ending the programs that USAID does, per se,” Rubio stated, adding that some of them were “good” but others raised “strong questions.” He also maintained that “everything” that USAID does “has to be in alignment with the national interest and the foreign policy of the United States.” He did not elaborate on any specific changes he might want to make within the agency.
He earlier stated that a program-by-program review would be carried out to determine which ones make “America safer, stronger or more prosperous.”
Musk had previously claimed that Trump had “agreed” to shut down the agency altogether. The president also branded it a “criminal organization” that he believes was financing bioweapons research, including projects that allegedly led to the emergence of Covid-19.
Established in 1961, USAID is a soft-power agency that distributes billions of dollars each year to projects that promote US interests around the world under the premise of humanitarian development. Last week, Trump halted all its programs for 90 days and ordered them to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. According to Rubio, the move led to “a lot more cooperation” from the recipients of US assistance.
The agency’s website went dark and its account on the social media platform X, which is owned by Musk, disappeared over the weekend. On Monday, USAID also reportedly closed its main office in Washington, DC, and told personnel to stay away from it.
