()President Trump’s new DOGE task force is causing major shakeups within the federal government with the Elon Musk-run agency having effectively shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

The future of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) continues to remain uncertain as the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has taken control of the agency’s money, locked out workers, accessed classified information and removed leadership.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk who runs DOGE announced that President Donald Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency down.

“USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die,” Musk posted to the social platform X, which he owns.

A White House statement shared Monday afternoon claimed the agency has “been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous and, in many cases, malicious pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight.”

Pet projects that, according to the White House, include funding tourism, electric vehicles, LGBTQ community outreach and DEI initiatives worldwide. “Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW,” the statement continued.

Newly minted Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that he was now the acting administrator of USAID, reported The New York Times. But he slammed the agency he now heads saying workers have had a high level of “insubordination.”

Rubio accused USAID staffers of “deciding that they’re somehow a global charity separate from the national interest or taxpayer dollars.”

USAID is in charge of administering U.S. humanitarian aid around the world. The agency employs around 10,000 people and has an annual budget of around $40 billion. 

Staffers of the agency were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters, and yellow police tape and officers blocked the agency’s lobby on Monday.

USAID workers also said more than 600 additional employees had reported being locked out of the aid agency’s computer systems overnight. Those still in the system received emails saying that “at the direction of Agency leadership” the headquarters building “will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.” 

Two top security chiefs at USAID were put on leave after they refused to turn over classified material in restricted areas to Musk’s government inspection teams, a current and a former U.S. official told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The major move has ruffled several feathers with Democratic lawmakers calling the DOGE takeover a major national security mistake. They stressed that aid from the agency is not charity but international money that goes to countries that the U.S. considers allies. The aid also provides a bulwark in defense of adversaries, they added.

But Republicans say only about 10 to 20% of all USAID money goes to work on the ground, adding that much of the budget is inflated.

Legal challenges to DOGE’s shutdown are likely as many Democrats contend that it’s illegal for the president or anyone else to unilaterally shut down a government agency without congressional approval. 

Congress controls federal money and budgets.

DOGE has become an x-factor in the federal government in the short time of its existence. The task force also obtained unrestricted access to the Treasury Department’s highly sensitive payment systems, which pays out tax refunds, government contracts and Social Security and Medicare benefits.