DOGE sets its sights on $50 BILLION government department Elon Musk claims is a ‘criminal organization’ and warns it’s ‘time for it to die’

Elon Musk attacked a government agency tasked with humanitarian relief overseas on Sunday, calling it a ‘criminal organization’ as Donald Trump claimed it was ‘run by radical lunatics’ and warned he was considering its future.

The assault on the US Agency for International Development (USAID) marks a significant new front Musk’s unprecedented power grab to upend federal departments and eliminate what the he considers wasteful spending and overreach.

‘USAID is a criminal organization,’ Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX who has become the president’s most powerful backer, wrote on his X platform without providing any evidence adding ‘Time for it to die’.

He followed with multiple additional posts on X about the aid agency. 

In one subsequent post, Musk doubled down and again without giving evidence, asked his 215 million X followers: ‘Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including Covid-19, that killed millions of people?’

He did not elaborate on the allegations, which officials in the previous administration linked to a Russian disinformation campaign.

The United States Agency for International Development has ‘been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out… and then we’ll make a decision (on its future),’ Trump said on Sunday without elaborating.

He underscored his support for Musk, telling reporters on Sunday night he felt the billionaire was ‘doing a good job’ even if they did not agree on every point.

‘He’s a big cost-cutter. Sometimes we won’t agree with it or we’ll not go where he wants to go…he’s a smart guy. Very smart. And he’s very much into cutting the budget of our federal government,’ Trump said.

The purge follows more than a week of mayhem inside USAID, Washington’s primary agency funding billions of dollars’ worth of life-saving aid globally. 

Trump ordered a freeze on almost all U.S. foreign aid for three months, saying his administration will review spending to ensure money is distributed in line with his ‘America First’ foreign policy.

Though he subsequently issued waivers for food and other humanitarian aid to continue, aid workers say uncertainty reigns with the future of the organization as an independent agency far from assured.

USAID, an independent agency established by an act of Congress, manages a budget of $42.8 billion meant for humanitarian relief and development assistance around the world.

A senior official from a US-based organization feared that the prioritization of ’emergency’ assistance was part of a broader plan in which Washington would discontinue funds for anything else. 

Former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said the attack on USAID ‘will cost untold lives around the world, devastate America’s standing, and massively empower China and other countries.’ 

He added: ‘There’s no excusing it – it’s a shameful, stupid, self-own without excuse and a harbinger of even worse to come.’

There have been reports Trump wants to roll USAID into the State Department.

Since Trump’s inauguration Musk has addressed far-right groups in Europe, given an infamous raised-arm gesture compared to a Nazi salute, and attacked the Treasury for making authorized payments on the government’s behalf.

DOGE was founded as part of the so-called ‘executive office of the president,’ as a temporary 18-month organization under the repurposed United States Digital Service.

It does not enjoy full status as a government department, which would require the approval of Congress, and Musk is neither federal employee nor a government official. It is unclear to whom DOGE is accountable.

CNN reported that two senior security officials at USAID were put on forced leave after they barred staff from Musk’s DOGE from accessing classified documents as part of their sprawling effort to inspect the government’s books.

The two DOGE representatives also wanted to access staff files and security systems at USAID’s headquarters, the broadcaster reported, citing multiple sources.

Nearly 30 career staff in the agency’s Legislative and Public Affairs bureau lost access overnight to their emails, at least five sources said, bringing the total number of senior USAID career staff who have been put on leave over the past week close to 100.

‘DOGE did access the building yesterday,’ a senior Senate Democratic aide said, requesting anonymity to discuss the incident. USAID security officers tried to turn away DOGE personnel without security clearances.

‘They (security personnel) were threatened with action by the federal Marshals Service,’ the aide said. 

Following the incident, the director of USAID security, John Voorhees, and his deputy Brian McGill were removed from their positions and put on leave, sources said.

The pair believed themselves legally obligated to deny access. 

PBS also reported that DOGE staff attempted to gain access to ‘secure spaces.’

There was no record of what information DOGE officials were able to obtain in those areas, but the offices they accessed included classified files and personal information about Americans who work at USAID, the sources said.

Katie Miller, a DOGE spokesperson, said on social media platform X that no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.

Matt Hopson, who had just been appointed as USAID chief of staff by the Trump administration, has resigned, five sources familiar with the matter said. A congressional source said his resignation followed the incident with DOGE officials.

Steven Cheung, a senior aide to Trump, posted on X that the PBS report was ‘legitimately FAKE NEWS. Not even remotely true at all. This is how unserious and untrustworthy the media is.’

Meanwhile, USAID’s account on X has been disabled and the USAID website has been down since Saturday afternoon, a sign that the end is near for the agency.

The U.S. is by far the world´s largest donor of humanitarian aid, with USAID administering billions of dollars in humanitarian, development and security assistance in more than 100 countries. 

Its funding goes to programs on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work. 

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy has criticized the ‘total destruction’ of the agency.

‘The people elected Donald Trump to be President — not Elon Musk,’ Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X.

‘Having an unelected billionaire, with his own foreign debts and motives, raiding US classified information is a grave threat to national security,’ she said.

Democratic Senator Cory Booker turned to social media on Sunday to sound off on the ‘dismantling’ of USAID.

‘Trump and Musk are recklessly and illegally dismantling USAID, an essential national security agency that saves lives, advances U.S. interests, and promotes peace,’ Booker wrote.

‘Their malicious actions are putting the health of people, especially children, at grave risk, and will surely lead to future public health and migration crises in the U.S. – let alone suffering around the globe.’

Senior Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including its chair Jeanne Shaheen, on Sunday sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio seeking an explanation over the incident.

Shaheen said that she was working to gather Democrats and Republicans to ask for answers.

The global freeze on most of U.S. foreign aid is already sending shockwaves around the world.

Field hospitals in Thai refugee camps, landmine clearance in war zones, and drugs to treat millions suffering from diseases such as HIV are among the programs at risk of elimination.

U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast, a Republican, said on Sunday that he would support moving USAID under the State Department and that there needs to be ‘more command and control.’

Asked on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ if congressional approval was needed or whether Trump could act unilaterally, Mast did not answer. 

The ‘purging of people throughout the State Department, other agencies’ and freezing aid were ‘all very important and necessary steps to make sure that we secure America,’ he said.

It comes a day after DOGE carried out a similar operation at the Treasury Department gaining access to sensitive information including the Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems. 

The system is run by non-political career civil servants and controls trillions of dollars of government funds that go to programs like Social Security and Medicare. Any interruption in its operation would spark widespread economic failure. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Musk’s DOGE the green light to have full access to the payments system late on Friday.

It was not immediately clear why Musk wants access to the system, which handles around $5trillion annually, but it could provide the Trump administration another means to target wasteful spending. 

A senior Treasury official resigned over Musk’s team accessing sensitive information.