All this week pop-up rallies have been happening in front of government buildings with elected officials, employees and supporters. Wednesday’s big show of support was for USAID. Thousands rallied in the Upper Senate Park near the US Capitol Building.
What is USAID:
The United States Agency for International Development is an independent agency under the State Department that distributes and administers aid to foreign civilians. It’s described as “soft power” - basically helping countries people so that they ally with the U.S. Also, helping prevent famine, and disease in the rest of the world causes less want for migration. Preventing diseases as ebola, AIDS etc in the rest of the world means it doesn’t come home to us. Think long term investment, versus the Defense Department’s short-term missile investment.
Back when President John F Kennedy signed the Foreign Assistance Act in 1961 starting USAID, it was about preventing the spread of the USSR’s communism - now it’s about stopping the spread of China’s “belt and road” program.
What’s happening with it?
Trump’s sieg-heiling billionaire buddy Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is plowing its way through government as planned (See: Project 2025) and he’s not set his sights on US foreign aid. Musk has tweeted that he had spent the weekend “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”
Wired reported that: Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has gutted the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), taking a team of over 10,000 down to just under 300, according to an internal email viewed by WIRED and several current USAID employees.
The Associated Press wrote that “The four sources familiar with the plan said only 294 staff at the agency would be allowed to keep their jobs, including only 12 in the Africa bureau and eight in the Asia bureau.”
USAID.Gov’s own website now directs to a simple text page stating:
TL;DR: If you’re a USAID employee that wants to get home and not have to pay for it yourself, do it within 30 days.
Why does Musk/Trump want to destroy it?
Foreign aid has always been a right wing hang up, whether it be Ukraine, Sudan or Mexico, Republicans have always used it as a cudgel. Trump who has run a 10 year “America for Americans” campaign sees USAID as wasteful. Anna Kelly, Whitehouse deputy press security, told CNN, “The president is identifying “wasteful spending that does not align with the America First agenda while curbing Chinese influence abroad.”
Musk tweeted that he is “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” The unelected billionaire who has been given sweeping power and access over government agencies by Trump has spread conspiracies about the agency calling it “a viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America.” He believes, without fuck-all evidence that the agency is money-laundering. The conspiracies are mostly made up by Mike Benz, the same person who pushed much of the Twitter files BS. NBC News has more on it - read it here.
How are people trying to save it?
As I write this on Friday there is a lawsuit in federal court brought “by the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Foreign Service Association, seeks an order blocking what it says are "unconstitutional and illegal actions" that have created a "global humanitarian crisis." They have requested that the court issue a temporary restraining order to prevent any changes. The lawsuit also notes that only Congress has the authority to make the changes that DOGE is attempting to do. View the lawsuit here.
Democrats claim that they are working on a multi-step process to prevent further changes to USAID. US Sen. Tim Kaine told the thousands chanting for Democrats to “do their job” this:
Kaine: Okay. You guys want to hear what we're doing to stop this, right? Well, there's a litigation strategy, a state court strategy, a legislative strategy in Congress and a political strategy. Right. So let us start with the fact. Let us start with the litigation strategy. You have seen us succeed in numerous court cases in the last few days. And we're going to wait a whole lot more court cases.
The audience in the back didn’t seem sated by that answer, but others seemed hopeful that they at least had some sort of a plan, even if it wasn’t detailed.
Cory Booker gave the most powerful speech of the rally - even if it didn’t have any more information on the HOW and WHAT Dems are doing that so many people were crying for.
Read more:
How an ex-State Department official fueled Elon Musk’s attack on USAID
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/06/musk-doge-usaid/
Trump administration to keep only 294 USAID staff out of over 10,000 globally, sources say
Federal Employee Unions Sue Trump Administration for Dismantling USAID
Direct link to PDF of court case:
https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/zjvqnrbqrpx/AFSA%20v%20Trump%20complaint%202-6.pdf
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