Non-elected Elon Musk has access to the U.S. Treasury Department’s payment system and every American’s Social Security numbers, reports Democracy Now, and has closed down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), notes The Daily Beast:
Musk confirmed the administration was in the process of shutting USAID down. “As we dug into USAID it became apparent that what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms. If you have an apple with a worm in it, you can take the worm out. If you have a whole ball of worms, it’s hopeless,” he said. “USAID is a ball of worms. There is no apple… that is why it’s gotta go. It’s beyond repair.”
Musk had declared earlier on Sunday, “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” He continued to take aim at the agency, which has an annual budget of more than $50 billion, with several more posts on his social media platform…
Trump appeared to agree with the plan to kill off the department, telling reporters Sunday evening that the agency had “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out… and then we’ll make a decision (on its future).”
The BBC reported:
Staffers who work at the agency’s Washington DC headquarters were told to stay home on Monday. Hundreds of employees were also locked out of their email, according to an internal email obtained by the BBC…
Whether the agency is shut down or restructured, the changes sought by Musk and Trump would have far-reaching implications. USAID distributes billions in aid to non-governmental organisations, aid groups and nonprofits around the world.
With its website down, several key information reserves, including an international famine tracker and decades of aid records, appeared to be unavailable.
Top officials have been placed on leave or resigned in the last two days following clashes with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), a team set up in consultation with the administration that Trump has given broad leeway to slash government spending.
It is not, however, an official government agency.
Sources: The Daily Beast, The BBC, DemocracyNow/YouTube)