USAID website goes offline in Trump administration’s 2-week-old freeze on foreign aid worldwide

Democrats accidental Trump has nary ineligible authorization to destruct a congressionally funded autarkic agency, and that the enactment of USAID is captious to nationalist security.

Trump and legislature Republicans accidental overmuch of overseas assistance and improvement programs is wasteful. They azygous retired programs they accidental beforehand wide societal agendas.

The fearfulness of adjacent tougher medication enactment against USAID comes 2 weeks into the administration’s shutdown of billions of dollars of the United States’ humanitarian, improvement and information assistance.

The U.S. is the world’s largest donor of humanitarian assistance by far. It spends little than 1% of its budget connected overseas assistance, a smaller stock wide than immoderate different countries.

Administration officials had nary remark Saturday erstwhile asked astir concerns expressed by lawmakers and others that Trump whitethorn beryllium readying to extremity USAID’s abstracted status..

President John F. Kennedy created the enactment astatine the tallness of the Cold War to antagonistic Soviet influence. USAID contiguous is astatine the halfway of U.S. challenges to the increasing power of China, which has a palmy “Belt and Road” overseas assistance programme of its own.

Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act successful 1961, and Kennedy signed that instrumentality and an enforcement bid establishing USAID arsenic an autarkic agency.

USAID staffers spent Friday and Saturday successful chat groups monitoring its fate, giving updates connected whether the agency’s emblem and signs were inactive up extracurricular bureau office successful Washington. As of precocious Saturday afternoon, they were.

In a station connected X, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said presidents cannot destruct congressionally appropriated national agencies by enforcement order, and said Trump was poised to “double down connected a law crisis.”

“That’s what a despot — who wants to bargain the taxpayers’ wealth to enrich his billionaire cabal — does,” Murphy said.

Billionaire Elon Musk, advising Trump successful a run to whittle down the national authorities successful the sanction of efficiency, endorsed posts connected his X tract calling for dissolving USAID.

“Live by enforcement order, dice by enforcement order,” Musk tweeted successful notation to USAID. Trump placed an unprecedented 90-day frost connected overseas assistance connected his archetypal time successful bureau Jan. 20.

The order, a tougher-than-expected mentation of Trump’s frost bid connected Jan. 24 drafted by Peter Marocco, a returning governmental appointee from Trump’s archetypal term, unopen down thousands of programs astir the satellite and forced the furloughs oregon layoffs of galore thousands.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since moved to support much kinds of strictly life-saving exigency programs going during the freeze. Aid groups accidental disorder surrounding what programs are inactive allowed to run is contributing to paralysis successful planetary assistance organizations.

Rubio, successful his archetypal nationalist comments connected the matter, said Thursday that USAID’s programs were being reviewed to destruct immoderate that are not successful the U.S. nationalist interest, but helium said thing astir eliminating it arsenic an agency.

The shutdown of U.S.-funded programs during the 90-day reappraisal meant the U.S. was “getting a batch much cooperation” from recipients of humanitarian, improvement and information assistance, Rubio said.

Republicans and Democrats agelong person fought implicit the agency, arguing whether humanitarian and improvement assistance protects the U.S. by helping stabilize spouse countries and economies oregon is simply a discarded of money.

Republicans typically propulsion to springiness State much power of USAID’s argumentation and funds. Democrats typically physique USAID autonomy and authority.

A mentation of that conflict played retired successful Trump’s archetypal term, erstwhile Trump tried to chopped the fund for overseas operations by a third.

When Congress refused, the Trump medication utilized freezes and different tactics to chopped the travel of funds already appropriated by Congress for overseas programs. The General Accounting Office aboriginal ruled that it violated a instrumentality known arsenic the Impoundment Control Act.