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The foreign aid agency’s closure has saved US taxpayers “tens of billions of dollars,” the secretary of state has said
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Friday he was handing USAID over to the Office of Management and Budget to “oversee the closeout” of the agency.
Shortly after returning to office in January, US President Donald Trump launched the process of dismantling the agency, which has long served as Washington’s primary funding channel for political projects abroad. He accused the organization – often criticized by conservatives as promoting liberal causes – of being run by “radical lunatics” and enabling corruption “at levels rarely seen before.”
Since then, thousands of USAID employees have been dismissed or placed on leave, while billions of dollars in contracts have been frozen or canceled under Trump’s broader federal waste-cutting initiative. The administration has been battling lawsuits from dismissed employees and NGOs opposing the shutdown.
“Since January, we’ve saved the taxpayers tens of billions of dollars,” Rubio wrote in a post on X. “And with a small set of core programs moved over to the State Department, USAID is officially in close out mode.”
I joked with @POTUS that I had four jobs. He told me to give one to my friend @RussVought47. So I did.
⁰Since January, we’ve saved the taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. And with a small set of core programs moved over to the State Department, USAID is officially in close…
In the same X post, Rubio said he was now handing the agency’s final shutdown over to Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to oversee the termination of a body he said had “long ago went off the rails.”
Vought has led Trump’s efforts to claw back funds that clash with the president’s agenda, including allocations to USAID.
USAID’s activities have long drawn criticism from some foreign leaders. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico voiced concerns over what he described as potential “gross interference” in his country’s politics. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban urged eliminating “these foreign networks” that interfere in domestic politics.
READ MORE: US spent ‘tens of millions’ in Moldova – former USAID chief
This week, former USAID chief Samantha Power admitted in a call with Russian pranksters that the agency had invested tens of millions of dollars in Moldova to support pro-EU President Maia Sandu. The money, she said, was drawn from USAID’s Ukraine funds, of which a share was earmarked for Moldova.
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