During the second presidency of Donald Trump, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the principal U.S. government agency for administering civilian foreign aid and development programs, underwent sweeping staff and program reductions. Its remaining programs were transferred to the United States Department of State. In January 2025, President Donald Trump ordered a review and near-total freeze on foreign assistance. The administration subsequently placed most USAID employees on administrative leave, terminated thousands of grants and contracts, and announced that 83% of the agency's programs would be canceled. U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio, who became acting administrator of USAID, oversaw the transfer of the remaining programs to the State Department. USAID's independent operations ended on July 1, 2025, by which time 94% of its staff had been laid off.
Elon Musk and personnel associated with the Department of Government Efficiency participated in implementing the administration's early actions involving the agency. The foreign-aid freeze, workforce reductions, program cancellations and transfer of functions prompted lawsuits by employee unions, aid organizations, contractors and grant recipients. The lawsuits challenged the administration's authority to suspend congressionally appropriated funding and dismantle or transfer the functions of an agency established by Congress.
The funding reductions and program cancellations disrupted humanitarian relief, food-security systems, global-health programs, clinical trials, disease surveillance, and other international-development work. A retrospective evaluation and forecasting analysis published in The Lancet estimated that if the funding reductions continued through 2030, they could result in more than 14 million additional deaths, including approximately 4.5 million among children younger than five, although this estimate is disputed. The Impact Counter later attributed 781,343 deaths, including 518,428 children, to the first year of funding cuts.
Timeline of staffing and policy changes
Initial 90-day freeze On January 24, 2025, during the second Trump administration, President Donald Trump ordered a near-total freeze on all foreign aid.
Several days later, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver for humanitarian aid, referred to as Lifesaving Humanitarian Aid (LHA). However, there was uncertainty as to whether the LHA waiver was actually translating into aid flowing, and there was still considerable confusion about what agencies should do.
On January 27, 2025, the agency's official government website was shut down.
Layoffs and firings In early February 2025, more than 1,000 USAID employees and contractors were fired or furloughed following the near-total freeze on U.S. global assistance that had been implemented.Matt Hopson, the USAID chief of staff appointed by the Trump administration, resigned. The administration then placed most remaining USAID employees on administrative leave. Multiple lawsuits were filed against the Trump administration alleging that those actions were not within its powers without congressional authorization. On February 6, 2025, reports indicated that the total number of employees to be retained was 294, out of a total of more than 10,000.
Trump declared that agency leaders were "radical left lunatics", while the State Department ordered them to halt virtually all of their projects, even if that meant shutting down programs that had helped to eradicate smallpox and prevented millions of HIV cases.
Also in February, the administration made several allegations of wasteful spending and fraud. An analysis by Al Jazeera reported the claims regarding fraud to be unsubstantiated. An analysis by The Washington Post found most of the claims made by the administration regarding USAID spending to be misleading.
March USAID internal memo A USAID internal memo, dated March 4, 2025, written by Nicholas Enrich, Acting Assistant Administrator for Global Health, outlined the risks of the aid freeze. He stated that a permanent suspension of lifesaving humanitarian aid posed a direct threat to public health, economic stability, national security and biothreat vulnerability. He concluded: "Any decision to halt or significantly reduce global health funding for lifesaving humanitarian assistance (LHA)—despite approved waivers—and USAID global health programming, despite congressional mandates, would have severe domestic and global consequences." Enrich was notified that he was put on administrative leave less than 30 minutes after the memo's publication, a decision that had reportedly been made a week prior.
Reduction to 17% of programs On March 10, 2025, U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio announced that the Trump administration had concluded its review, and 83% of USAID's programs would be cancelled, involving approximately 5,200 contracts.
Absorption by State Department On March 28, 2025, U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio notified Congress that USAID would be dissolved and absorbed into the U.S. State Department, stating that USAID had been fiscally irresponsible and strayed from original mission. He argued, "Unfortunately, USAID strayed from its original mission long ago. As a result, the gains were too few and the costs were too high."
Since July 1, 2025, USAID's operations have ceased and U.S. foreign assistance has now been administered by the U.S. State Department. In connection with this effort, 83% of USAID programs were canceled, and 94% of staff were laid off.
Representative Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, stated as an example of what he viewed as abrupt and irresponsible cost-cutting: "Thanks to DOGE, the men we paid to guard the most vicious ISIS terrorists in the world in Syria walked off the job."
USAID employees were not automatically transferred. Instead, the State Department is engaging in a "separate and independent hiring process."
Proposed $5 billion dollar pocket rescission In late August, President Trump informed House speaker Mike Johnson, that he would not spend $4.9 billion in foreign aid that Congress already approved. This is a "pocket rescission", in which a president announces money will not be spent shortly before the 30 September end of the fiscal year, preventing Congress from acting on his request within 45 days. The Guardian states this is the first time in 50 years such a rescission has been made.
In early September, a district judge ordered the Trump administration to spend those funds. On appeal, Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency petitions for Washington DC, gave aid groups who had sued until September 12 to file a response.
Some of the money was scheduled to go to United Nations organizations and peacekeeping purposes, as well as projects of economic development assistance and democracy promotion.
Expansion of anti-abortion and anti-DEI policies In mid-January 2026, the Trump administration adopted new stricter policies effective February 26, 2026, for both anti-abortion goals and anti-DEI goals (DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). Since the Reagan administration in the 1980s, U.S. money could not be used for abortions. Each subsequent Democratic administration repealed that policy and each subsequent Republican administration put it back in place, as the Trump administration did early in his second term.
The new policy bars organizations that receive U.S. money from either performing or recommending abortions, even with non-U.S. money. In addition, the organization cannot promote DEI goals. The policy states that the banned activities are to "provide or promote abortion as a method of family planning; Promote gender ideology; Promote discriminatory equity ideology; or Engage in unlawful diversity, equity, and inclusion-related discrimination."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio can issue limited waivers so that the new policy will not "unduly disrupt ongoing lifesaving programming, disaster response, and other critical priorities."
A critic stated that the new policy "will affect access to safe spaces for survivors of gender-based violence, efforts to increase women's representation in peacebuilding initiatives, and a host of other work." The cable announcing the new policy stated that it is in line with the Trump administration's approach to focus "resources on programs that are designed to effectively and efficiently save lives, support allies, and create commercial opportunities that benefit the American economy."
Key people
Role of Elon Musk
The Washington Post, NBC News, The Nation, and The Atlantic, reported that Elon Musk fixed his attention on USAID since December 2024, after watching an episode of Joe Rogan's podcast with Mike Benz railing against it.
On January 30, 2025, Elon Musk demanded that Jason Gray, acting administrator of USAID at that time, shut off email and cellphone access for USAID workers around the world, including in conflict zones. Gray refused, saying that doing so would put their lives at risk. By the next day, Gray was removed from his post.
On February 3, 2025, Elon Musk, who has been carrying out parts of Trump's cost-cutting agenda, announced that he and Trump were in the process of shutting down USAID, claiming it to be a "criminal organization" and that it was "beyond repair". Because USAID's Inspector General had previously launched a probe into Starlink, Musk was criticized as having a conflict of interest.
Andrew Natsios, the administrator for USAID during the George W. Bush administration, told PBS that, "With all due respect, none of these people know anything about AID. What does Musk know about international development? Absolutely nothing. He has a bunch of young kids in their 20s. They don't know. They're techies. They don't know anything about international development. They don't know anything about the Global South."
Role of U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio
On February 3, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced his appointment as Acting Administrator of USAID by President Trump and that USAID was being merged into the State Department. The legality of these actions is disputed given the mandate for the agency's creation in the Foreign Assistance Act. It was announced that on February 6, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel would be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs.
Role of Mike Benz
Mike Benz, a far-right commentator, was linked to Elon Musk's attempt to dismantle USAID, according to various news organizations including The Washington Post, NBC News, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Lawsuits
+CaseCourtCase no.(s)First filing dateOutcomeNotesAmerican Foreign Service Association, et al. v. Trump, et al.U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia1:25-cv-00352February 6, 2025AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, et al. v. United States Department of State, et al.U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia1:25-cv-00400February 10, 2025Global Health Council, et al. v. Trump, et al.U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia1:25-cv-00402February 11, 2025Personal Services Contractor Association v. Trump, et al.U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia1:25-cv-00469February 18, 2025
American Federation of Government Employees v. Trump This lawsuit claimed the Trump administration had violated separation of powers, the Take Care Clause of the Constitution, and the Administrative Procedure Act. And initially, U.S. district judge Carl Nichols, whom Trump had nominated in 2019, stated he would enter in a temporary restraining order pausing the plan to put thousands of employees on leave and removing workers from abroad.