The future of USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, is uncertain after Elon Musk said President Trump had agreed to shut it down. The Tesla billionaire and presidential adviser has inserted himself into the inner workings of the federal government, gaining access to sensitive computer systems and making sweeping changes for which he has no clear authority. Over the weekend, the USAID website and social media channels were taken offline, and two top security officials at the aid agency were placed on administrative leave after attempting to block members of Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing USAID's classified systems, including personnel files. Musk claimed in a series of posts on his website X that USAID is a "viper's nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America," and staff were instructed to stay away from the agency's Washington headquarters on Monday. "What we are seeing … are attacks against it as a corrupt and illegal organization by people who know nothing about it. They are manufacturing these things out of whole cloth," says former senior USAID staffer Jeremy Konyndyk, now president of Refugees International. "It's really important to understand that a lot of what USAID does saves lives every single day."
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