Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team is finalizing the dismantlement of the U.S. Agency for International Development, ordering the firings of thousands of local workers and American diplomats and civil servants assigned to the agency overseas, two former top USAID officials and a source with knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday. On Friday, Congress was notified that almost all of USAID's own employees are being fired by September, all of its overseas offices shut, and some functions absorbed into the State Department. The former officials and source familiar with the situation said on condition of anonymity that USAID’s human resources office told regional bureaus in a conference call that layoff notices were going to all of the more than 10,000 locally-hired foreign nationals, effective in August.
Elon Musk's cost-cutting team is finalizing the dismantlement of the U.S. Agency for International Development, ordering the firing of thousands of local workers and American diplomats and civil servants assigned to the agency overseas, two former top agency officials and a source with knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday. On Friday, Congress was notified that almost all of the agency's own employees are being fired by September, all of its overseas offices shut, and some functions absorbed into the State Department. The latest move by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency effectively will eliminate what is left of the agency's workforce.
Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team is finalizing the dismantlement of the U.S. Agency for International Development, ordering the firing of thousands of local workers and American diplomats and civil servants assigned to the agency overseas, two former top USAID officials and a source with knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday. President Donald Trump and Musk, his hand-picked adviser to oversee government cost-cutting, in February began the process of shuttering USAID and merging its operations into the State Department to ensure they conformed with Trump's "America First" policies. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.