Trump calls directly for USAID closure

WASHINGTON: The US president’s demand to end the U.S. Agency for International Development came as the vast majority of the agency’s employees were expecting to be placed on indefinite administrative leave, The NYT reported.

President Trump on Friday directly called for the closure of the US Agency for International Development just hours before most of its staff were expected to be suspended with pay or laid off, the latest sign that his administration will dissolve the government’s main provider of global humanitarian and development aid.

Trump wrote of USAID on Truth Social, accusing the agency of unspecified rampant corruption and fraud. He had previously asserted that the agency was “run by radical lunatics”.

Trump’s demand to end the agency came as the vast majority of the agency’s direct hires were expecting to be placed on indefinite administrative leave, while contractors were to be let go. The notice announcing that change, which was posted to the USAID website on Tuesday, also informed foreign service officers that the agency would pay for them to return home within 30 days, with extensions offered on a case-by-case basis.

That guidance was amended overnight to inform workers that they had the option of staying abroad longer at their own expense.

A new frequently asked questions section, with just one entry, was appended to the original notice on USAID’s website, explaining that foreign service officers could remain overseas if they were willing to cover the cost of travel themselves. It did not specify whether workers who stayed overseas while on administrative leave would continue to have their cost of living subsidized.

The original instructions had set off a panic, as foreign service officers wondered how they would be able to uproot their lives and their families in a matter of weeks. But the clarification that they could stay abroad, provided that they paid for their own return, came as little comfort to aid workers facing the loss of their jobs.

Only a small subset of USAID officials received notice this week that they had been deemed “essential” personnel.

“This your formal notification that you are expected to keep working, effective immediately, and until notified otherwise,” the emailed notification sent to those personnel said, according to a copy reviewed by The New York Times. It was not immediately clear how many employees fell into this group.