“The comments from Elon Musk have been particularly cutting, calling us a ‘criminal organisation’ that needs to ‘die,”” said a USAID staffer, who asked not to be named because they feared retaliation from Musk and the administration.
“Coming from the wealthiest man on the planet, that feels pretty grotesque,” said the staffer, who has since been put on administrative leave along with many other colleagues.
“I see foreign service officers that have spent their entire lives serving – a large part of it overseas – and the sacrifices they made,” they said. “To be dragged through the mud like this is disrespectful.”
The upheaval at USAID has raised concerns from Democrats and experts about whether Trump and Musk’s actions are legal.
On its face, efforts by Trump and Musk to shut down USAID are “not legal because it runs afoul of what Congress has explicitly done previously,” said Jon Rogowski, a political science professor at the University of Chicago who studies the separation of powers in the US government.
Congress has established USAID as an independent agency, and the legislative branch appropriates funding.
As head of the federal agencies, however, Trump does have broad authority to bring certain USAID functions under the state department’s control, according to George Ingram, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former USAID deputy assistant administrator.
One such move included appointing Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the acting head of USAID, when in the past the agency had functioned independently of the state department, while following its guidance on foreign policy.
And influential Republicans in Congress appear ready to work with the administration to allow some degree of change.
“I’m supportive of the Trump administration’s efforts to reform and restructure the agency in a way that better serves US national security interests,” said Senator James Risch, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Though Musk does not have the authority to shut down or restructure USAID, the agency likely could not have been dismantled as swiftly and thoroughly without his influence.
“I cannot think of any precedent where a presidential administration has essentially handed over the reins to a private citizen, to remake and take control of the executive branch as they see fit,” Mr Rogowski said.
In a statement to the BBC, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Musk “is selflessly serving President Trump’s Administration as a special government employee, and he has abided by all applicable federal laws”.
