Billionaire Elon Musk, who is heading US President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal government, gave an update on the effort early on Monday, saying they were working to shut down the US foreign aid agency USAID.
Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, discussed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a Monday social media talk on X, which he also owns. Trump has assigned Musk to lead a federal cost-cutting panel.
The conversation, which included former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican senators Joni Ernst and Mike Lee, began with Musk saying they were working to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“It’s beyond repair,” Musk said, adding that Trump agrees it should be shut down.
On Sunday, it was reported that the Trump administration had removed two top security officials at USAID during the weekend after they tried to stop representatives from Musk’s DOGE from gaining access to restricted parts of the building, three sources said.
The website of USAID appeared to still be offline on Saturday and some users could not access it on Sunday. USAID has a staff of more than 10,000 people.
Speaking more broadly about cutting US expenses and fraud, Musk estimated the Trump administration can cut US$1 trillion from the US deficit next year.
Musk did not offer any evidence to support his fraud claim or explain how he reached the amount of US$1 trillion.
Since taking office 11 days ago, Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.
I think that the opposition groups may very well be already established and thus no longer need the kickstart funding, for example LATINUS, (mexican disinformation media, based in the US) is already huge and likely makes a profit from its audience and private donors without the need of USAID or the NED.
That’s a worrying conclusion, but thank you. That would make sense.
There is another posibility, the national oligarchs are starting to fund these projects from their own pocket, Salinas Pliego in México, Bukele in el Salvador, Noboa in Ecuador… Bukele is a phenom in social media and is the blueprint for all these jackasses.
I don’t see why they would rather not have the US State and super-profits funding them, but that is a possibility too.
I mean its not their decision, its the US decision to keep funding them or not. Of course, these groups would love some sweet extra USD. Anyways, big man cult of personality is back stronger than ever thanks to social media.
Makes sense.