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“Time for It To Die”: Musk Pushes for Trump to Shut Down USAID

HeadlineFeb 03, 2025
Image Credit: USAID

The future of USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, is in doubt after a dramatic weekend. The agency’s website has been down since Saturday, and workers have been told not to come to work today at the agency’s headquarters. On Saturday, USAID’s director of security and his deputy were placed on leave after they attempted to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing USAID’s classified systems.

New York Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote, “This is a five alarm fire. The people elected Donald Trump to be President — not Elon Musk. Having an unelected billionaire, with his own foreign debts and motives, raiding US classified information is a grave threat to national security. This should not be a partisan issue.”

On Sunday, Musk said, ”USAID is a criminal organization” and that it is “Time for it to die.” Musk also said Trump agrees that “we should shut it down.” Trump weighed in by claiming the aid agency is run by a “bunch of radical lunatics.” Doctors Without Borders warns the dismantling of the U.S. humanitarian aid system will cause an “unmitigated humanitarian disaster affecting millions of the world’s most vulnerable people.” We will have more on this story later in the show.

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