Trump Praises DOGE and Hints He Will Axe USAID

A USAID worker watches as relief supplies are unloaded at Manila's international airport on Oct. 13, 2009. Jay Directo/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Feb. 4 praised the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), saying it and Elon Musk have uncovered massive amounts of fraud and misuse of federal funds.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in particular has been a recent target of DOGE’s scrutiny and Trump’s ire. On Feb. 3 Musk said on X that he had “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”

“Look, he’s done a great job,” Trump told reporters at an Oval Office press conference. “Look at all the fraud that he’s found in this USAID. It’s a disaster. … With money going to all sorts of groups that shouldn’t deserve to get any money. … I'd like to see what the kickbacks are.”

Trump brushed aside concerns about the youth of some of DOGE’s cohort, all handpicked by Elon Musk. The engineers range in age from 19 to 25.

“They’re very smart though,” the president said, although he admitted he had not met them.

The president also suggested that as early as tomorrow, he may publicly read off  “a list of 15 or 20” examples of gross mismanagement of funds disbursed through USAID.

A reporter then told the president that it sounds as if he intends to “wind down” USAID.

“It sounds like it,” Trump replied. “I mean, some of the money is well spent, I guess, but much of it is really fraudulent.”

Trump’s comments about USAID follow a 90-day freeze on federal foreign aid—with exceptions for emergency humanitarian organizations

They also follow a Feb. 3 confirmation that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now the acting administrator of that agency.

Rubio, a former senator, said on Feb. 4 that USAID and other federal agencies had been less than transparent when he and other members of Congress had previously sought details about how its money was being spent.

“You know, before we did the freeze, we couldn’t find out anything about some of these programs. And USAID, in particular, they refused to tell us anything,” he said during a press conference in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Its website has been shut down, and its headquarters temporarily closed, after several USAID employees refused to comply with audit requests from DOGE.

The State Department, led by Rubio, also notified Congress that the agency is under review, “with an eye towards potential reorganization.”

Democrat leadership in Congress has already organized to stop USAID from being shuttered. Senators, members of the House of Representatives, and agency employees held a rally on Feb. 3 outside USAID headquarters to protest the shakeup.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) has also announced he will place a blanket hold on all of Trump’s State Department nominees until the president reverses course on USAID.

“This is self-inflicted chaos of epic proportions that will have dangerous consequences all around the world,” he said in a statement.

Under the Senate’s hold rule, one member can object to approving a group of nominees by unanimous consent, forcing the Senate to vote on each nominee separately.

“As a result, nominations subject to a blanket hold may have their consideration delayed or prevented due to the amount of floor time it would take to consider them individually,” according to the Congressional Research Service.