Musk and Trump Take Aim at USAID: 'A Viper's Nest of Radical-Left Marxists Who Hate America'

President Trump and Elon Musk are on the verge of closing down the U.S. Agency for International Development. Thousands of USAID employees have reportedly been laid off already, and staffers reported over the weekend that 600 employees had been locked out of the agency’s computer systems in one night. 

Musk, saying the agency was "beyond repair", posted on X that "USAID was a viper's nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America."

President Trump echoed those sentiments. "USAID, run by radical lunatics. And we're getting them out. And then we'll make a decision."

"It became apparent that it's not an apple with a worm it in,” Musk said in a live session on X Spaces early Monday. “What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.”

The move has led to pushback by some Democrats with the fate of the agency still unclear. Maryland Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen said, “We will do everything in our power in the Senate and the House to stop this outrage." 

Democrats say Trump lacks constitutional authority to shut down USAID without congressional approval, Van Hollen calling it an "illegal shutdown."

For now, staffers at USAID have been instructed to stay out of the agency's Washington headquarters.

While on a diplomatic mission in San Salvador, El Salvador, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was now the acting director of USAID, indicating that the remaining elements of the agency could be placed under his authority.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has long strayed from its original mission of responsibly advancing American interests abroad, and it is now abundantly clear that significant portions of USAID funding are not aligned with the core national interests…

— Department of State (@StateDept) February 3, 2025

Rubio stated that USAID leaders had refused to cooperate with the President of the United States and had failed to answer questions about funding. “And that sort of level of insubordination makes it impossible to conduct the sort of mature and serious review that I think foreign aid writ large, should have,” Rubio said.

Pushing Leftist Policies

On Monday, U.S. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke to the press about some concerning examples of what USAID has been funding. She said, "These are some of the insane priorities that that organization has been spending money on: 

• $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia's workplaces.
• $70,000 for a production of a DEI musical in Ireland.
• $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia.
• $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru."

Need more evidence USAID was a big money laundering scheme? Listen to @PressSec list a few places they spent your $.

$1.5M for DEI in Serbia
$70K for a DEI musical in Ireland
$47K for a trans opera in Colombia
$32K for a trans book in Peru

There are thousands of these examples. pic.twitter.com/xyRYZs8Cgx

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) February 3, 2025

USAID is a program that was intended to use U.S. taxpayer funding to strengthen democracies overseas. But as CBN News reported last year, documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the agency conducts undemocratic activities, even encouraging other nations to censor social media. 

And LifeSite News reported years ago that USAID has a history of promoting sterilization, abortion, and eugenics.

"Documents reveal that USAID has for more than two decades been at the helm of India's family planning programs, not just funding them, but overseeing and orchestrating the entire program," the news outlet reported in 2015.