Washington — All overseas missions for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, have been ordered to shut down and all staff will be recalled by Friday, multiple sources confirmed to CBS News.
The newly appointed deputy administrator for the agency, Pete Marocco, met with State Department leadership on Tuesday and instructed them to get every USAID employee out of their respective countries worldwide by Friday, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Marocco said that if the State Department did not, the staff would be evacuated by the U.S. military, the sources said.
The agency provides humanitarian aid to more than 100 countries, including disaster relief, health and medical aid, and emergency food programs.
USAID has more than 10,000 employees, with about two-thirds serving overseas, according to a Congressional Research Service report. The agency maintains more than 60 country and regional missions.
The Trump administration has targeted USAID as the president and his allies — including billionaire Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — seek to cut the size of the federal government.
The future of the agency — which was established in 1961 to combat poverty, strengthen democracy and protect human rights and global health — is now uncertain.
Musk has said the agency should be shut down, arguing that it’s “beyond repair.”
When asked Tuesday whether he would wind down USAID, Trump told reporters, “It sounds like it.” The president also praised Musk for scrutinizing the agency.
“Look at all the fraud that he’s found,” Mr. Trump said, adding that funding has gone to “all sorts of groups that shouldn’t deserve to get any money.”
But Dr. Atul Gawande, former USAID Global Health director, told CBS News the move to target the agency is “dangerous for the country.”
“What we’re talking about are disaster relief workers, we’re talking about health workers and people who are doing good and protecting America around the world,” Gawande said. “You’re talking about 20 million people in the global HIV program that has reduced HIV around the world, they are going without medication that keeps them alive. You’re talking about disease outbreaks that are not being stopped, like bird flu, where monitoring has been turned off in 49 countries.”
In fiscal year 2023, USAID managed more than $40 billion in appropriations, the Congressional Research Service said, an amount that is less than 1% of the overall federal budget.
Most of that funding went to governance programs, intended to help develop and strengthen democratic governance, followed by humanitarian and health programs, according to the report. The countries that received the most money in fiscal year 2023 were Ukraine, Ethiopia and Jordan.
Staff recalls also include the agency’s foreign service officers, who spend years abroad, often with their families. They’ll have to figure out logistics for their children who are in school, housing, moving their belongings and where they’ll move to in the U.S.
Melissa Quinn and
contributed to this report.
