Billionaire Elon Musk said early Monday that President Donald Trump agreed to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—which he cannot legally unilaterally do —as the foreign aid agency has become embroiled in partisan controversy thanks to right-wing claims it supported “radical” causes that remain unsupported or debunked.
Musk said on an X Spaces conversation early Monday he “went over” the “USAID stuff” with Trump and “[the president] agreed that we should shut it down,” after Trump told reporters Sunday about USAID, “It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision [about its future].”
USAID is the primary federal agency providing foreign aid to countries around the world, and has been under siege by the Trump administration in recent days amid rumors Trump wants to move it under the State Department, with staff being cut, its website shut down and Trump freezing nearly all foreign aid, while staffers from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) already accessing and scrutinizing the agency’s classified data.
Musk and other Trump officials have claimed USAID is staffed by Democrats and supports left-wing causes, with Musk repeatedly criticizing the agency on social media and claiming in his X Spaces conversation Monday the agency is “incredibly politically partisan” and has supported “radically left causes throughout the world including things that are anti-American.”
Trump advisor Stephen Miller also claimed on CNN that “98%” of the agency’s staff donated to former Vice President Kamala Harris or other Democratic candidates in the November election, while Trump’s envoy for special missions Richard Grenell claimed former USAID head Samantha Power “used [taxpayer] money to fund crazy radical programs and far Left activists” and State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce posted a thread of what she called “unjustified” foreign aid spending.
Neither the claims of USAID staffers donating to Democrats or “radical” funding have proven true, and other GOP claims also have been debunked, such as the Trump administration’s claim the agency sent $50 million worth of condoms to Gaza.
DID USAID SPEND $50 MILLION ON CONDOMS IN GAZA?
No. Trump and his administration have claimed the Biden administration spent $50 million on “condoms in Gaza,” with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt calling the expenditure a “preposterous waste of taxpayer money” and using it to justify the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid. Trump even ramped up the accuations Monday, telling reporters Musk had found evidence of $100 million worth of condoms going to Hamas. There is no evidence to support the White House’s claims. The Washington Post notes the Biden-era State Department signed a $50 million deal for healthcare in Gaza but that did not include supplying any condoms, and while USAID did send $60.8 million in contraception and condoms to other countries in fiscal year 2023, none of those shipments were sent to Gaza. The first Trump administration also sent contraception and condoms abroad through USAID, the News Literacy Project first noted, sending $51.5 million worth of contraceptives in 2018 and $39.1 million in 2019.
WHAT DOES USAID SPEND ITS FUNDS ON?
USAID spent more than $43 billion in fiscal year 2023 providing aid to approximately 130 countries, according to the Congressional Research Service. The biggest recipient of USAID’s funding has been Ukraine, which CRS noted has received more than $46 billion since its war with Russia began in February 2022, followed by Ethiopia, Jordan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Syria. The agency’s mission has consistently received bipartisan support in the past, and The Washington Post noted in 2017 military leaders also view the agency as essential because it helps to prevent foreign wars that the U.S. could otherwise have to step in to help with. USAID provides funding to combat issues like poverty and disease, as well as provides strategic assistance for foreign conflicts and supports developing countries’ economic growth. Former officials with the agency have suggested cuts to its funding will impact ongoing issues like international Ebola outbreaks, the bird flu epidemic and worldwide HIV treatment and prevention.
HAS USAID DONE ANYTHING WRONG?
Trump officials and Musk’s concerns about USAID are primarily based on partisan concerns, rather than any actual wrongdoing by the agency. The Office of the Inspector General that oversees USAID has said in recent reports the agency does have some room for improvement, citing issues with ensuring the United Nations and other organizations inform USAID of any misconduct within the groups its funding, failures by the UN and other groups to provide the inspector general’s office with information to help its investigations, and jurisdiction issues making it hard for USAID to sue any foreign organizations that misuse its funds. The inspector general also argued USAID needs a better system to identify whether the groups it’s funding have any ties to terrorist groups or “corrupt actors,” after House Republicans expressed concern in 2023 that the agency’s humanitarian aid being sent to Gaza could be sent to groups with ties to Hamas.
