- USAID staff were told to work remotely after being shut out of the Washington HQ. The move comes amid a clash with Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative, which has left the agency’s operations paralyzed.
USAID staffers were told to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters and work remotely early Monday morning, according to an email sent to employees.
“At the direction of Agency leadership, the USAID headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C. will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, February 3, 2025. Agency personnel normally assigned to work at USAID headquarters will work remotely tomorrow, with the exception of personnel with essential on-site and building maintenance functions individually contacted by senior leadership,” the email, seen by Fortune, said.
“All staff working in all other NCR facilities will come in as usual. Further guidance will be forthcoming,” it added.
USAID did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
The move comes after a turbulent weekend for USAID, during which Elon Musk’s cost-cutting initiative, DOGE, targeted the aid agency.
During a live-streamed X Spaces event over the weekend, Musk said he planned to shutter the agency, a move that President Trump supported. The billionaire called USAID a “ball of worms” and “beyond repair.”
Trump has previously said the aid agency is “run by a bunch of radical lunatics,” and he planned on “getting them out.”
DOGE takeover
Musk has been wresting for control over USAID in recent days.
Over the weekend, Musk’s DOGE teams gained access to classified information, including intelligence reports held by USAID.
Two agency security chiefs initially refused to hand over the classified materials and were placed on leave by the Trump administration, per reports.
The billionaire’s DOGE staffers have also moved into the agency’s headquarters and taken over some offices, ABC News reported.
Meanwhile, Musk has been launching a barrage of public attacks toward USAID and its employees.
“USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die,” he wrote in one X post.
About 60 senior staffers at the agency were also put on leave last week after USAID employees were accused of attempting to get around Trump’s 90-day freeze on foreign aid, per CNN.
The agency’s website has also gone dark, with officials reporting that operations have largely been paralyzed. USAID logos and photos of the agency’s work were also reportedly removed from its offices last week.
Democrats have said Trump lacks constitutional authority to shut down USAID without congressional approval.
Lawmakers have also criticized Musk’s involvement in the agency’s takeover and his reported access to sensitive government-held information.
This is a five alarm fire.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 2, 2025
The people elected Donald Trump to be President – not Elon Musk.
Having an unelected billionaire, with his own foreign debts and motives, raiding US classified information is a grave threat to national security.
This should not be a partisan issue. https://t.co/OkEfM1n1Ga
DOGE has accessed similarly classified documents at the Treasury Department over the weekend, including the Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems.
One senior Treasury official resigned over the incident, the Washington Post reported.
Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment, made outside normal working hours.
Are you an employee at USAID? Contact this reporter at bea.nolan@fortune.com or via Signal at beatricenolan.08
