U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday confirmed he’s now the acting head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) amid public comments about the future of the foreign aid organization.
While speaking to reporters in El Salvador, Rubio confirmed he would be in charge of the agency, saying at one point that “I am the acting director” of USAID.
“I have delegated that authority to someone ... I stay in touch with him,” he added. Rubio did not name the delegated person. The Epoch Times contacted the State Department for comment Monday.
“USAID is not functioning. It has to be aligned with US policy. It needs to be aligned with the national interest of the U.S.,” Rubio said. “They’re not a global charity—these are taxpayer dollars. People are asking simple questions. What are they doing with the money? We are spending taxpayers money. We owe the taxpayers assurances that it furthers our national interest.”
“It’s supposed to respond to policy directives of the State Department, and it refuses to do so,” Rubio said.
In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy established USAID during the Cold War to counter the Soviet Union’s influence overseas. In the decades since, Republicans and Democrats have fought over the agency and its funding.
Now, dozens of senior officials with USAID have been put on leave, contractors have been laid off, and employees were told Monday not to enter its Washington headquarters. USAID’s website and its account on X have been taken down.
In previous comments, Rubio said the administration’s aim was a program-by-program review of which projects make “America safer, stronger, or more prosperous.”
As for Musk, his DOGE has launched an effort to terminate unnecessary government workers and cut trillions in government spending. Musk has been highly critical of USAID in recent days and on Monday morning, he said in an X Spaces event that it is “beyond repair” and that “you’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing.”
When asked about the agency on Sunday night, Trump told reporters that the leaders of USAID will be removed. “It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics,” he said, “and we’re getting them out.”
Democratic lawmakers have protested the moves, saying Trump lacks constitutional authority to shut down USAID without congressional approval and decrying Musk’s accessing sensitive government-held information through his Trump-sanctioned inspections of federal government agencies and programs.
“This is a corrupt abuse of power that is going on,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said at a rally with agency supporters and other Democratic lawmakers in front of the USAID building.
“As my colleague said, it’s not only a gift to our adversaries, but trying to shut down the Agency for International Development by executive order is plain illegal,” he said.
The Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid last month put a pause on a number of USAID programs around the world, including an HIV and AIDS program that was set up under President George W. Bush in the early 2000s.
