‘America at war with itself’: Congress sounds off as Trump, Musk look to shutter USAID

WASHINGTON (CN) — As billionaire Elon Musk and the Donald Trump administration on Monday appeared to set the groundwork for scuttling the U.S. Agency for International Development, members of Congress fumed about what they said was yet another example of the White House trampling on their authority.

The 63-year-old independent government agency, responsible for coordinating billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid, is under threat from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, a White House-approved commission with the stated goal of slashing federal waste. Senior USAID officials were reportedly put on leave over the weekend after they blocked Musk aides from accessing sensitive information at the agency’s Washington headquarters.

And on Monday, Musk himself wrote in posts on X that he had spent the weekend “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” He has also called the agency a “criminal organization,” pointing to large expenditures on contracts but providing little evidence of criminal activity.

The Trump administration has yet to take a formal stance on the future of USAID. But in a post on X Monday morning, Vice President JD Vance appeared to acknowledge the punishment of senior agency staffers for standing in Musk’s way.

“Career bureaucrats don’t get to violate lawful orders from the President of the United States,” he wrote. “They answer to the president, and he answers to the people. Really not that complicated.”

USAID staff on Sunday night received an email informing them that the agency’s headquarters would be closed on Monday and that further guidance was forthcoming, raising questions about the organization’s long-term survival.

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, members of Congress fumed Monday morning about the prospect of allowing Musk — an unelected White House adviser whose companies have collected billions of dollars in government contracts over the years — to shutter a government agency.

“Trump and Musk are putting millions of lives at risk, hamstringing our ability to effectively compete with adversaries, and undermining American leadership,” said Washington Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.

“Not sure how this is going to make us more secure or lower costs for everyday Americans, but it’s obvious that the President and Musk do not care about anyone but themselves,” Smith added.

New Jersey Senator Andy Kim, who interned at USAID as a college student and later worked at the State Department, offered a damning indictment of any move to shutter the agency, arguing that the administration was doing “extraordinary damage” to the country’s reputation abroad.

“Their vindictive way of trying to shut down USAID sends signals all over the world that we are a nation at war with itself,” said Kim. “It tells authoritarian adversaries that America is distracted and divided. It tells other nations we don’t care about them as China and others try to woo them to their side.”

Democrats further pointed out that any move by the Trump administration to unilaterally scuttle USAID would violate federal law. Congress has final authority to shut down the agency, which was codified into law by the 1998 Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act.

Kim vowed that lawmakers would fight any attempt to close USAID. “This is all self-inflicted damage,” he said.

“Lawsuits are underway and we are doing oversight to try to stop this,” added California Representative Sara Jacobs.

But some congressional Republicans, particularly those on the party’s right flank, cheered on the prospect of shuttering the agency — such as Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who offered an amendment to a 2025 State Department appropriations bill that would have stripped funding for USAID. Her proposal only captured 81 Republican votes.

“I FULLY SUPPORT ELIMINATING USAID!” Greene wrote in a post on X.

The Georgia Republican has long been a critic of foreign aid, and recently suggested, albeit with no solid evidence, that USAID’s funding for infectious disease research helped spark the Covid-19 pandemic.

In only a couple of weeks, the second Trump administration has managed to take several actions that lawmakers have said trample on Congress’ lawmaking and oversight authorities. The White House last month unilaterally fired nearly 20 independent inspectors general at an assortment of federal agencies — a move which appeared to violate federal law requiring the administration to give Congress 30 days’ notice before taking such action.

The Trump administration in January also placed what it said was a temporary halt on the disbursement of federal funds, sparking confusion about Americans’ access to vital programs such as Medicaid and SNAP benefits. That action, which has since been blocked in federal court, appeared to violate the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which prevents the White House from rescinding funds without congressional approval.

So far, though, the Republican-controlled Congress has yet to take any concrete steps to affirm their legal authority.

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