Trump and Musk move to dismantle USAID, igniting the battle with democratic legislators – the Associated Press

Washington (AP) – Trump Administration and billionaire Elon Musk Move to close an agency This provides decisive assistance in financing education and hunger abroad, causing reflection with the Democrats of Congress, who have blown up their efforts as illegal and promised a court battle.

In one of the most dramatic efforts to go back President Donald Trump’s setting to reduce and reshape the federal governmentSome Democrats sought to enter the agency headquarters on Monday. They were blocked by officials from the lobby, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was an active administrator of the agency, although he was an independent body for six decades.

While Trump has spent the first three weeks of his new Presidency Making broad changes in the federal governmentThe rapid development of USAID emerges as a particularly controversial Flashpoint with Democrats, who claim to symbolize the massive power that muscle possesses over Washington.

Trump told reporters on Monday that the exclusion of USAID “had to be done a long time ago”. Asked if he needed a congress to approve such a measure, the president replied that he did not think so.

Congress Democrats, cheered by several hundred supporters, promised to act outside the USAID headquarters, where federal officers and the yellow tape blocked both employees and MPs to enter hours after Musk announced, “We turn it off.”

“This is a constitutional crisis we are today,” said Democratic Senator Chris Murphy.

Added Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin: “We do not have a fourth branch of the government called Elon Musk. And that will be real. “

Showing the exceptional musk strength and its budget tilt Ministry of Government EfficiencyThousands of USAID employees have been fired and programs have been closed worldwide during the two weeks since Trump became president and imposed Mettest FreezingS

The United States is the largest humanitarian aid provider in the world, and moves have increased decades of US policy that put humanitarian, development and security assistance at the center of efforts to build unions and counteract opponents such as China and Russia. Trump, Musk and Republicans in the Congress have made the American foreign assistance program in a special target, accusing it of waste and developing liberal social programs.

The United States spends less than 1% of its foreign assistance budget, a lower share in general than some other countries. Trump accused the Biden administration of fraud without giving any evidence and promised only a report later.

“They became completely crazy, what they were doing and the money they gave to the people who should not receive it, and to agencies and others who should not receive it, it was a shame, so a huge fraud,” Trump Trump in front of reporters at The oval office.

Democrats withdrawn

Legislators have tried to enter USAID offices in Washington, saying they want to talk to all the employees left for the agency’s dismantling. Officers from the Ministry of Interior Security and men who identify themselves as USAID officials have blocked them. “Elon Musk is not here,” one told one to the legislators.

Senator Chris Van Holen of Maryland called him “illegally picking power” and said this was “corrupt abuse of power”.

“This is not only a gift for our opponents, but also the attempt to close the International Development Agency is ordinary illegal,” he said.

The Democrats said the judicial challenges were already under work and promised to try to block the approval of the Trump State Department nominations until the exclusion was canceled. The Democrats are in the minority in the House and the Senate after the election last November, leaving them with a reduced lever.

Musk announced the agency’s closure earlier Monday as Rubio It was out of the trip to Central America.

Rubio told reporters in San Salvador That he is now a USAID administrator, but has delegated his authority to someone else. In a letter to the legislators received by the Associated Press, Rubio appointed Peter Morocco, a politically appointed, whose short stay in USAID in the first Trump administration generated unusual protests by the press cuts and investigations that ambassadors and other senior officials complain delayed work in A crawl.

In his remarks, Rubio stressed that some and maybe many USAID programs will continue in the new configuration, but that the switch is necessary as the agency has become non -refundable to the executive branch and congress.

USAID work around the world

Conservative Republicans have long been striving to return USAID status as an independent agency, while Democrats have traditionally supported its status as an independent agency. President John F. Kennedy established the USAID in 1961 in the midst of the United States St. War fight with the Soviet Union, looking for a more effective way to counteract Soviet influence abroad through foreign assistance and consideration of the State Department as a disappointing bureaucratic in this S

Trump freezes from foreign help and targeting USAID, which runs humanitarian development and security programs in about 120 countries, forced US and international companies to close tens of thousands of programs worldwide, leading to feed, dismissal and financial crises.

This includes a HIV/AIDS program, which started by Republican President George W. Bush, credited with saving more than 20 million lives in Africa and elsewhere. Aid contractors spoke about millions of dollars medicines and other goods that have now stuck in the harbor, which are forbidden to deliver.

Other programs that would close have provided education to students in Afghanistan as a rule to the Taliban and have observed an epidemic of Ebola distributed in Uganda. A USAID crisis monitoring program, which has been credited to help prevent repetition of hunger from the 1980s in Uganda, which killed up to 1.2 million people, came out offline.

Other organizations have applied for bankruptcy or faced with it after being told that USAID will not pay its invoices for projects that have already been approved and implemented around the world.

Senator Brian Shaz, D-Hawaii, said the USAID is not just about saving other countries from starvation and disease. “There is a reason that USAID is a hand of US foreign policy and this is because we understand that a stable world means stable America,” he said.

USAID’s last hit

USAID employees said more than 600 additional employees have announced that they have been locked from the agency’s computer systems overnight. Those who are still in the system have received emails, saying that “at the direction of the agency management,” the building of the plant “will be closed to the agency’s staff on Monday, February 3”. The agency’s website disappeared on Saturday without explanation.

Musk leads an exceptional civil review of the Federal Government with a Trump agreement. The day began with Musk, who announced in a live session of X spaces that he spoke to Trump for a long time about the agency and “he agreed that we should close it.”

“It became clear that he was not an apple with a worm he was in,” Musk said in a live session on X spaces early Monday. “What we have is just a ball of worms. You need to get rid of all the work. This is out of repair. “

Ever since Trump took office, appointed, brought from his first term, Morocco put more than 50 senior officials on an investigation leave without a public explanation, shaking the agency’s management. When the agency’s staff chief announced that the accusations against them were groundless and tried to restore them, he was also released on leave.

During the weekend, the Trump administration has set two best security bosses in USAID On leave After they refused to hand over classified materials in limited areas in the Musk government government teams, a current and former US official said.

Musk’s dog earlier A similar operation at the Ministry of FinanceObtaining access to sensitive information, including social security and Medicare customer payment systems. The Washington Post has announced that a senior official of the Ministry of Finance has resigned over the Musk team who has access to sensitive information.

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Gomez Lyon reported from Fort Loderdale, Florida. AP writer Fatima Hussein in Washington has contributed to this report.