Summary

USAID staffers were locked out of headquarters and computer systems after Elon Musk announced Trump agreed to shut down the agency.

Musk’s DOGE team has been reviewing government agencies, accessing sensitive information, sparking protests from Democrats. Two USAID security chiefs were placed on leave for denying Musk’s team classified materials.

USAID’s website disappeared, and foreign aid programs were frozen under Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Critics argue Trump lacks authority to close USAID without Congress.

  • treadful@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    Critics argue Trump lacks authority to close USAID without Congress.

    Already tried of hearing this.

      • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        What if the Democrats point out (not too loudly) that this is all highly irregular? Surely that would put an end to it? If that doesn’t do it, they could add, “tut tut.”

    • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
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      1 day ago

      I mean if he keeps doing things he has no authority to do isn’t that like illegal? Aren’t there SOME consequences for doing illegal things if you’re rich in the states?

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        The only effective way to apply consequences at this point would be for the workers to arm themselves and barricade themselves in.

      • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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        1 day ago

        They’ve stacked the judiciary and the legislative seems unwilling to put up a fight.

        Even if the judiciary wouldn’t be onboard with the sheer scale of destruction of the system they’re meant to uphold going on here, that takes weeks, months, years.

        They can gut the fed in days as you see. They can barge into whatever branch of the government, start barking illegal orders and expect to be followed. Nobody is stopping them. The scale of it overwhelms what the system would’ve been able to fix in the past.

        I try not to be hyperbolic but Trump and Co have destroyed the thin veneer of legality far faster than I thought possible and faced vanishingly little real pushback. We’re past laws at this point, The unloyal are being purged as we speak and this shit is going to hit an exponential curve of fucked now.

  • SoJB
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    1 day ago

    Are the CIA gonna tell them how important USAID is for starting right wing terrorist revolutions?

    The Xinjiang terrorists training under Ukraine and ISIS send their deep concern.

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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    21 hours ago

    Last time I went to their office, they had a conference on investments in poor countries.

    USAID was an org for colonialism. Good riddance.