Elon Musk says he and Donald Trump have agreed to “close down USAID” — the agency that supports international development.
In an appearance on X, he said, “We’re closing it down,” adding that he had “the full support of the president.”
He stressed that the agency is “beyond repair.”
USAID’s spending is determined by Congress.
Its budget for fiscal year 2023 was about $40 billion, according to a report last month by the Congressional Research Service.
It works primarily to support foreign aid and humanitarian organizations overseas.
Musk said he and Trump had discussed the move at length.
“As far as USAID goes, I talked [it] with him in detail and he agreed that we should close it down,” he said. “I actually asked him a couple of times [and] said, ‘Are you sure?’” he said.
He said Trump said, “Yes.”
But the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The comments came after two senior officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) were suspended after they tried to block members of Elon Musk’s efficiency team from accessing secure systems, according to reports.
DOGE employees were eventually able to gain access to secure systems, but it was not clear what information they were able to obtain.
