USAID watchdog fired after report on Trump’s bid to dismantle agency

The inspector wide for the U.S. Agency for International Development was fired connected Tuesday, a USAID authoritative said, a time aft his bureau published a study captious of the Trump administration’s effort to destruct the agency.

Paul Martin had served arsenic the agency’s inspector general, a presumption requiring U.S. Senate confirmation, since December 2023.

The USAID official, who spoke connected information of anonymity to sermon delicate matters, said Martin was “removed from his position.”

Martin was informed by an email from Trent Morse, lawman manager of the Office of Presidential Personnel. Morse told Martin that his presumption arsenic USAID inspector wide was terminated “effective immediately,” a transcript of the email showed.

No crushed was provided. The White House did not person immoderate comment.

The inspector general’s bureau connected Monday released a study that said the Trump administration’s determination to dismantle USAID has crippled its quality to behaviour oversight of unspent assistance worthy $8.2 billion.

The study said unit cuts and stop-work orders person made it hard to guarantee taxpayer-funded assistance would extremity up successful the hands of those intended.

Hundreds of USAID programs crossed the globe representing billions of dollars of U.S. assistance came to a halt aft U.S. President Donald Trump connected January 20 ordered a frost connected astir U.S. overseas aid, saying helium wanted to guarantee it was aligned with his “America First” policy.

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Trump connected Tuesday called USAID “incompetent and corrupt,” arsenic helium tasked billionaire Elon Musk with scaling down the agency, which had much than 10,000 unit astatine location and overseas earlier each but conscionable implicit 600 were enactment connected permission oregon fired.

The Trump medication past week took steps to enactment astir of USAID’s workforce connected administrative leave, but the determination was blocked by a justice connected Friday.

In fiscal twelvemonth 2023, the United States disbursed $72 cardinal of assistance worldwide connected initiatives including women’s wellness successful struggle zones, cleanable h2o access, HIV/AIDS treatments, vigor information and anti-corruption work. It provided 42% of each humanitarian assistance tracked by the United Nations successful 2024.

The funding, little than 1% of the U.S. national budget, has historically been justified arsenic instrumental to Washington’s efforts to physique alliances astir the world, reenforce diplomacy and antagonistic the power of adversaries specified arsenic China and Russia successful the processing world.

–Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Jasper Ward; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose; Editing by Cynthia Osterman