Elon Musk says he and Trump close Usaid

The technological billionaire Elon Musk said on Monday that he and President Donald Trump were closing the American international development agency, climbing their war against federal bureaucracy and challenging the constitutional power of the congress to determine how ‘Money is spent.

Musk, the head of the Trump government efficiency initiative, announced the closure in the middle of the night during an audio appearance only on his social media site X.

“We close it,” he said. At another time, he said “we are” closing USAID “.

Musk did not say what legal authority he thought that the White House should close a federal agency without approval from the congress, or how speed was planning to act. He said that the idea had “total support of the president” and that he had spoken to Trump several times.

“Regarding the Trus of the USAID, I went (that) with him in detail, and he agreed that we should stop him,” he said. “I checked with him several times (and) said,” Are you sure? “” He said. He said Trump replied, “Yes.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments on the announcement of Musk early Monday morning.

Trump said on Sunday that Musk “does a good job” and criticized Usaid as “managed by a heap of radical crazy”, although Trump did not go so far as to say that he was planning to close the agency, with or without congress agreement.

Trump administration officials discussed the establishment of the USAID under the authority of the State Department, according to more than a dozen officials and former officials and familiar sources with the discussions, reported NBC News, a decision that Democratic legislators and legal experts argued that a law adopted by the Congress establishes the agency would violate.

Trump said he was practically frozen all American foreign aid while waiting for a 90 -day exam.

Congress appropriates each year that USAID to spend, mainly for foreign aid and charity organizations internationally. Its budget for the 2023 fiscal year was around $ 40 billion, according to a report last month of the Congressal Research Service. It is a small fraction of the global federal discretion Expenses of 1.7 billion of dollars.

President John F. Kennedy created USAID by decree in 1961 after the Congress adopted a reorganization of foreign aid.

Musk’s announcement followed an unusual incident on Saturday in which the USAID security director and his assistant were put on administrative leave after trying to prevent employees from the Musk Government Department Access Secure USAID Systems, five sources at NBC News said. DOGE employees threatened to call the American marshals, two of the sources said. DOGE employees were able to access secure systems, said three of the sources, but it was not clear what information they could get.

It was already clear last week that the Trump administration and Musk’s staff had planned a radical reshuffle of the USAID, one of the many agencies where fear and chaos sweep the federal workforce. More than 50 USAID career officials were on administrative leave last Monday.

The USAID has in the past a partnership with one of the Musk, SpaceX companies. The agency announced in 2022 that it had teamed up with SpaceX to provide 5,000 Internet terminals per Satellite Starlink to the government of Ukraine after the invasion of Russia.

On Monday, however, Musk called Usaid “Beyond Resorts” and “Hopeless”. He also said that the agency was “not an apple with a worm inside, but we actually only have a verse ball”.

In an article on X, Musk added that he had “spent the weekend feeding Usaid in the wooden shredder. Could go to great festivals. Did it instead.

Senator Joni Ernst, R -Iwa, a long-standing critic of federal expenses, joined Musk on the call and said that she agreed with his evaluation. It is not clear, however, to what extent this point of view is widespread, even at the congress controlled by the Republican.

A 1974 federal law known as the deduction control law indicates that the president cannot generally retain the funds that the congress has approved. Some Trump aid maintains that the law is unconstitutional, foreshadowing a potential fight in the courts.

The one -hour event on X, shortly after midnight and Monday, was the first time that Musk spoke publicly since he and a group of aid began revision of federal agencies last week.

Musk said he was planning to sweep away additional changes, including “the wholesale withdrawal of regulations”.

“Regulations should mainly be by default. The defect has disappeared, not by default there, the defect has disappeared, “he said, although he did not specify if he spoke for himself or for others in the administration.

Musk also said time was gasoline for Trump to act.

“It’s our blow. This is the best hand of cards that we have ever had, “he said. “Now or never.”