USAID workers placed on leave, pending reorganization, as Dems strike back with holds on Trump nominees

A forced leave of virtually all USAID workers worldwide began Friday after orders by President Donald Trump.

The Associated Press reported that virtually all USAID workers have been put on leave or told to work from remote locations, while unions that represent the workers have turned to federal courts to reverse the Trump order.

The order is expected to affect about 8,000 workers, with about 300 employees left to staff a skeleton crew, said multiple media accounts.

Democrats claim that the survival of millions of people is at stake, despite Trump’s openness to providing aid in other ways.

“A lot of people will not survive,” J. Brian Atwood, who served as head of USAID for more than six years and is now a senior fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute told Reuters.

Atwood said the agency prevents “tens of millions” of people from dying overseas.

Trump told reporters that the aid group should be under the supervision of the State Department and has accused the agency of being “run by a bunch of radical lunatics,” according to The Hill.   

He said he wants to rid the group of the radicals, and then reevaluate the programs.  

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Trump isn’t against providing aid for the programs as long as it’s under the supervision of the State Department. 

“There are things that it does that are good and there are things that it does that we have strong questions about. It’s about the way it operates as an entity. And they’re supposed to take direction from the State Department, policy direction. They do not now,” he said, according to NBC News. Rubio later added, “Their attitude is, ‘We don’t have to answer to you because we are independent, we answer to no one.’ Well, that’s not true, and that will no longer be the case.” 

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who is ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, said he will put a blanket hold on all Trump nominees for the Department of State. 

“Until and unless this brazenly authoritarian action is reversed and USAID is functional again, I will be placing a blanket hold on all of the Trump administration’s State Department nominees. This is self-inflicted chaos of epic proportions that will have dangerous consequences all around the world,” he said. 

A prominent Democrat who ran Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, however, has said that Democrats are tone-deaf about what voters want. 

“Part of the problem for the Democratic Party is that it has become a stalwart defender of institutions at a time when people are enraged at institutions,” David Axelrod told Politico. “And they become – in the minds of a lot of voters – an elite party, and to a lot of folks who are trying to scuffle out there and get along, this will seem like an elite passion.” 

A recent poll from Reuters/Ipsos found that 56% of Americans want to cut foreign aid.  

“My heart is with the people out on the street outside USAID, but my head tells me: ‘Man, Trump will be well satisfied to have this fight,’” Axelrod told Politico. “When you talk about cuts, the first thing people say is, ‘Cut foreign aid.’” 

Elon Musk, who has been tasked by Trump with making government more efficient, has charged that USAID is corrupt. 

He said the aid agency isn’t “an apple with a worm in it,” but a “ball of worms” with very little apple, according to CNN.  

“USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die,” said Musk on X.  

Conservatives have charged that USAID money is doled out to support Democrats, including sizable subsidies to the mainstream media both at home and abroad.   

“A look behind the curtain has revealed a horrific truth: Nearly the entire mainstream media – worldwide – has been funded by the U.S. government under the USAID,” said former Rep. Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas.