Until a few days ago, most Americans might have gone their entire lives without hearing of the US Agency for International Development, the little-known government organization that the world’s wealthiest man targeted for dissolution over the weekend by labeling it as a criminal enterprise on his social media platform.
But for millions in poverty living around the world, the agency that Elon Musk has been attacking has been a crucial lifeline by providing needed humanitarian aid and other assistance — and for the United States, it has been a key element of soft power that has helped it counter the ambitions of authoritarian regimes for decades.
Established by executive order under President John F. Kennedy on November 3, 1963 — just under three weeks before he would be killed by an assassin’s bullet in Dallas, Texas — USAID was the product of the Foreign Assistance Act, a September 1963 bill Kennedy had signed into law to separate military and non-military foreign aid programs and establish conditions under which the United States assists foreign governments.
Disaster Relief is a longstanding mission
One of USAID’s most visible functions is the provision of disaster assistance to foreign nations.
The agency’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance serves to coordinate international aid efforts in response to wars and natural disasters. It’s a mission that dates back to 1915, when future president Herbert Hoover headed the U.S.-led Commission for Relief in Belgium during the First World War. Hoover would later head the U.S. Food Administration to provide post-war relief to Europe before becoming the Secretary of Commerce under the Coolidge Administration.
It operates as the world's largest single donor of international food assistance, according to its website — which has been down since the weekend and continues to be inaccessible as of Monday.
Annually, the U.S. spends roughly $40 billion on foreign aid from a $50 billion budget — a sum that accounts for every four out of 10 dollars in global humanitarian aid, according to the Department of State.
USAID assists approximately 130 countries and has a workforce of over 10,000 people worldwide, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
In 2023, the countries to receive the most funding from USAID (in descending order) were:
US Agricultural Products have long been a staple of foreign aid programs
One of USAID’s other basic functions is to manage distribution of antipoverty relief programs, including food aid, by partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The agency also provides funding to non-governmental organizations for antipoverty programs, and partners with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Environmental Protection Agency to assist foreign governments in dealing with communicable disease prevention and environmental issues.
But USAID also fills a key role in U.S. assistance programs carried out in countries during times of war.
When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, it was USAID that supplemented military efforts to provide aid to local populations with the aim of winning “hearts and minds” on the ground.
What’s going to happen to USAID?
Because USAID was established by an act of Congress, it can’t simply be disbanded by executive fiat — or by a tweet from Elon Musk, regardless of his role within the Trump administration.
For now, Trump has placed Secretary of State Marco Rubio in charge as the acting administrator of USAID, following a common practice from his last administration when he installed loyalists as the acting heads of agencies he wanted to control directly from the White House.
Congress, which funds USAID directly, may not be so eager to have the agency subsumed into the State Department bureaucracy.
One Democratic Senator, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, has vowed to put a hold on all State Department nominations until Trump relents and restores USAID to its independent status with its own administrator and staff.
For now, the agency has said its Washington, D.C., headquarters has been shuttered. Staff were ordered to work from home on Tuesday, and several hundred employees reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems.
“He agreed we should shut it down,” Musk said during a live discussion on X Spaces. “It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm in it. What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair. We’re shutting it down.”
He branded USAID a “criminal organization,” without anything to back up the wild claim, adding: “Time for it to die.”
Ariana Baio contributed to this report from New York.
