Demonstrators gathered on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, to protest the Trump administration's dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Thousands gathered on Capitol Hill Wednesday to protest the Trump administration’s bulldozing of U.S. disaster aid and critical medical care in war-torn and poverty-stricken regions around the globe.

The future of American humanitarian efforts is unclear after U.S. Agency for International Development employees were told late Tuesday to prepare for administrative leave and abandon global posts within a few weeks.

A throng of demonstrators near the U.S. Senate office buildings carried signs reading “Republicans, where are your spines?” and “USAID makes America safe, strong and prosperous.”

 They encircled Democratic lawmakers and former USAID officials, who pleaded with the crowd to “not give up” as the Republican-held Congress allows “Elon Musk’s illegal takeover of USAID” — as Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs of California put it.

“And let’s be clear, while USAID might be first, it is not going to be the last. But joke’s on them because who knows better how to work in an authoritarian country than all of you?” she said to a cheering crowd that included humanitarian workers.

DOGE takeover

Individuals identifying themselves as part of Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” forcefully entered the computer systems at USAID’s Washington, D.C., headquarters over the weekend.

Democratic lawmakers have vowed “to fight this legally in every way we can,” Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey told the crowd.

“We will fight their violation of civil service laws. We will fight their violation of civil rights laws. We will fight their violations of separation of powers. We will fight their violations of our Constitution of the United States of America,” Booker said, issuing a plea for Republicans to join in sponsoring legislation to save USAID.

“This is not about demonizing a political party. It is about telling the truth about Donald Trump’s actions and Elon Musk’s actions,” Booker said.

Rep. Madeleine Dean told the crowd “do not fatigue.”

“These are not normal times,” said the Pennsylvania Democrat. “What is going on is corrupt. It is cruel, it is chaotic, it is lawless, it is unconstitutional, and that’s the point. Do not go home. Please stay with us. Bring more people to us and demand the same of our Republican colleagues. Where are they? When will they stand up to this lawless administration?”

In response to questions about Musk’s personnel gaining entry to USAID, President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that the agency is “run by radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out and we’ll make a decision.”

Trump placed Musk in charge of the “U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization” that, according to Trump’s own executive order, is supposed to modernize federal technology and software. Musk has used it to gain access to USAID, as well as the Treasury Department’s payment systems — for which the department is now facing a lawsuit. 

All workers on leave

All “direct hire” USAID workers will be placed on leave as of 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Friday, according to a message posted late Tuesday on USAID.gov. The message is the first item to appear on the website since it went dark Saturday.

Workers who are “designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs” will be notified by Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern if they are expected to continue working, according to the memo. Overseas workers have 30 days to leave their posts unless given an exception for a special circumstance.

“Thank you for your service,” the message concluded.

The Department of State did not respond to States Newsroom’s questions regarding how many workers will remain employed and where they will continue humanitarian missions.

Two-thirds of the roughly 10,000 USAID employees work overseas. The top 10 recipients of USAID assistance in 2023, the most recent complete data available, were Ukraine, Ethiopia, Jordan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Syria, according to the Congressional Research Service.

“You know who’s cheering today?” Bama Athreya, former USAID deputy administrator, asked the crowd. “ISIS is cheering. Al Qaeda is cheering as we recall thousands of people around the world” who give young people and families “options,” she said.

Ukraine aid

Congress allocated roughly $40 billion for USAID in 2023. That year, the agency allocated a large chunk to governance and humanitarian aid for Ukraine as the Eastern European nation faces a continued invasion from Russia.

The agency also carries a reputation for its work containing global health emergencies — perhaps best known for administering funds to fight the global AIDS epidemic under President George W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

Atul Gawande, a surgeon who led USAID’s global health program for three years prior to Trump’s second administration, led the crowd in a “Let them work” chant.

“Until two weeks ago, there was a malaria team with world experts, and they are gone. Until two weeks ago, there was a TB (tuberculosis) team, and they are gone,” Gawande said.

“They have called this ‘shock and awe.’ It is shock and destroy. You cannot dismantle a plane and fire the crew in mid-flight, but that’s what an oligarch with unchecked power is doing to life-saving foreign assistance programs,” Gawande said.

Brian York, 41, of Fairfax County, Virginia, stood in the crowd with a double-sided hand-drawn sign bearing the messages “Let’s Make America Gracious Again” and “Defend USAID.”

“I support my government. I was a Boy Scout. My father was a naval aviator. I actually like this country, and I want it to do better than this,” York said.

List of ‘waste, fraud and abuse’

The White House maintains that USAID “has been completely unaccountable for decades, run by bureaucrats with agendas who believed they answered to nobody.”

In a post on X Wednesday, White House communications personnel listed 28 of what they characterized as problematic USAID projects.

Without specifying details, including the length of funding, the post specifically listed: “$6.3 million for men who have sex with men in South Africa,” “$1.3 million to Arab and Jewish photographers,” “$20 million for a new Sesame Street show in Iraq,” “$1.5 million for ‘art for inclusion of people with disabilities,’” and “$500K to solve sectarian violence in Israel.”

“President Trump is STOPPING the waste, fraud, and abuse,” concluded the post on X, which is owned by Musk, a billionaire Trump campaign donor.

USAID’s X account disappeared over the weekend.

Democratic lawmakers protested outside USAID headquarters Monday as Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he was now acting administrator of the agency.

Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, one of the protesting lawmakers, said he would block Trump’s forthcoming Department of State nominations — a move that will slow down, but not stop, the nominations in the GOP-led chamber. 

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, left, D-Md., and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., right, speak to a crowd gathered at the shuttered Washington, D.C., headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development on Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Democratic members of Congress were denied entry Monday to the U.S. Agency for International Development, after billionaire Elon Musk, empowered by President Donald Trump, worked to close the nation’s humanitarian arm.

Senators and House members rallied outside the agency’s shuttered headquarters in Washington, D.C., vowing to fight Musk’s actions over the weekend. That included sending individuals from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to forcefully access USAID’s computer systems and files.

“We are not going to let this injustice happen. Congress created this agency with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and if you want to change it, you got to change that law,” Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia told a large crowd that gathered outside the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, where the agency is housed.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen told a swarm of journalists and USAID employees that the Trump administration’s action against USAID was “illegal” and that he had been speaking to lawyers over the weekend.

“This is a clear violation of our law,” the Maryland Democrat told the crowd, which was dotted with homemade protest signs reading “USAID Must Be Saved” and “USAID Saves Lives.”

Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who also joined the press conference, announced afterward that he would place a blanket hold on all of Trump’s State Department nominees going forward.

Connolly, Van Hollen, Schatz and several other Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Jamie Raskin and Johnny Olszewski of Maryland, Don Beyer of Virginia, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, were denied entry to USAID’s office following the outdoor press conference.

Employees received emails and text blasts telling them not to report to the building Monday.

Agency manages $40B in U.S. spending

The workforce of roughly 10,000 — two-thirds of which work overseas — manages projects and distributes funds that reach approximately 130 countries. The agency was appropriated roughly $40 billion in fiscal year 2023.

The agency, by statute, is an “independent establishment” and “under direct authority and policy guidance of the Secretary of State,” according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

Speaking to reporters in El Salvador Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he is now the acting administrator for USAID.

Rubio told reporters that USAID “is involved in programs that run counter to what we’re trying to do in our national strategy” in any given country.

“It’s been 20 or 30 years where people have tried to reform it, and it refuses to reform, it refuses to cooperate,” Rubio said.

Early Monday, Musk said during a live conversation on X Spaces that Trump “agreed we should shut it down,” The Associated Press reported. Recordings of live X Spaces are not automatically publicly available afterward. Musk was joined by GOP Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Mike Lee of Utah during the live chat.

The agency’s website, USAID.gov, and its X social media account went dark Saturday.

Democrats demand update from Rubio

Individuals identifying themselves as DOGE personnel entered USAID headquarters over the weekend to access the agency’s computers and files, CNN reported. At least two USAID security officials were put on administrative leave after initially refusing to grant access.

Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office establishing DOGE for the purposes of “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

Democrats on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations have asked Rubio for an “immediate update” on who accessed USAID’s system and files on Saturday and whether they reviewed classified and personally identifiable information.

“While some of the individuals purported to have security clearances, it is unclear whether those who accessed secure classified facilities had proper clearance or what they were seeking to access. We understand that the security guards present at the facility were threatened when they raised questions,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat, wrote in a letter co-signed by all Democrats on the panel.

Shaheen said the committee, which has jurisdiction over monitoring international aid, was not notified that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency was planning to visit USAID’s headquarters.

“Following this incident, the senior management of the Office of Security, which secures USAID personnel and facilities and safeguards national security information, were placed on administrative leave. The potential access of sensitive, even classified, files, which may include the personally identifiable information (PII) of Americans working with USAID, and this incident as a whole, raises deep concerns about the protection and safeguarding of matters related to U.S. national security,” Shaheen wrote.

DOGE representative Katie Miller wrote on X Sunday that “No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.”

Trump told journalists Sunday that USAID is “run by radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out and we’ll make a decision.”

In a post on his social media platform X Sunday, Musk wrote that the agency is “a criminal organization.”

States Newsroom reached out to the White House and the State Department for comment.

Just hours into his presidency, Trump signed an executive order to halt foreign assistance programs for 90 days.

Work stops at consumer finance watchdog

Newly installed U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has ordered the stoppage of numerous activities at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Rulemaking, enforcement actions, litigation and public communication are now halted, according to a memo from Bessent to employees that was obtained by NPR and Politico.

Trump appointed Bessent as the bureau’s acting director after dismissing its former head, Rohit Chopra, a Biden appointee.

The independent bureau within the Federal Reserve system was established by Congress in 2010 as a safeguard for consumers following the Great Recession.