Aid staff on leave as Musk culls ‘radical left’

The US government’s giant humanitarian agency USAID announced it was placing its staff in the US and around the world on administrative leave as it moved to recall employees from overseas postings.

A rally in front of the US Treasury Department in protest against Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

The US government’s giant humanitarian agency USAID announced it was placing its staff in the US and around the world on administrative leave as it moved to recall employees from overseas postings.

The agency said on its website that staff leave would begin just before midnight on Friday local time and would concern “all USAID direct hire personnel ... with the exception of those designated personnel responsible for ­mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs”.

The move is part of a radical drive by Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk to shrink the US government, which has shocked Washington and caused angry protests from Democrats and the human rights community.

The aid arm of US foreign policy, USAID funds health and emergency programs in about 120 countries, including the world’s poorest regions. It is seen as a vital source of soft power for the US in its struggle for influence with rivals including China, where Mr Musk has extensive business interests.

The world’s richest person has called USAID “a viper’s nest of ­radical-left Marxists who hate America” and has vowed to shut it down.

Among other unsubstantiated criticisms, Mr Musk says USAID does “rogue CIA work” and even “funded bio­weapon research, including Covid-19, that killed millions of people”.

The SpaceX and Tesla chief executive, who has massive contracts with the US government and was the biggest financial backer of Mr Trump’s election campaign, said he had personally cleared the unprecedented move with the President.

The assault on USAID comes in the context of long-running narratives on the hardline conservative and libertarian wings of the Republican Party that the US wastes money on foreigners while ignoring Americans.

The agency describes itself as working “to end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing our security and prosperity”.

Its budget of more than $US40bn is a small drop in the US government’s annual spending of nearly $US7 trillion.

AFP