- USAID will cut nearly all staff, reducing its workforce from over 10,000 employees to 290.
- Trump and Musk have criticized USAID for being wasteful and supporting liberal causes.
- USAID spent $32.5 billion in 2024, focusing on health and humanitarian aid.
Federal workers are suing to stop the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development, which faces cuts to nearly all of its over 10,000 staff by Friday.
The cuts would reduce employment numbers to 294, Randy Chester, vice president of the American Foreign Service Association at USAID, said in a press conference on Thursday announcing a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and members of his administration that seeks injunctive relief to halt the cuts.
“The rest of the service will be furloughed and put on administrative leave, pending, but we assume there will be a reduction,” he said.
One USAID employee who asked to remain anonymous told Business Insider that “the whole region of sub-Saharan Africa will be left with 12 staff members — or less.”
The Trump administration’s move to gut the foreign aid agency will also halt the contracts administered abroad by USAID.
On Tuesday evening, USAID announced it would put nearly all its staff on administrative leave beginning on Friday at 11:59 p.m., with exceptions to people with “exceptional circumstances,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. USAID said it would arrange return travel with the State Department within 30 days.
“We’re not trying to be disruptive to people’s personal lives, we’re not being punitive here, but this is the only way we’ve been able to get cooperation from USAID,” Rubio, USAID’s acting director, said Thursday from the Dominican Republic.
This comes after Donald Trump and Elon Musk both attacked the agency for being wasteful and backing liberal causes, with Musk calling it a “criminal organization” on X.
The American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents about 800,000 federal workers, filed a lawsuit with the American Foreign Service Association on Thursday, naming President Donald Trump, Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, the State Department, USAID, and the Treasury Department as defendants.
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs called the move by the Trump administration a constitutional and moral crisis.
The White House did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
USAID oversees programs in 65 countries focusing on medical assistance, food and nutrition, HIV treatment, and aid to people in conflict zones. Data reveals that USAID spent nearly $32.5 billion in aid in fiscal year 2024, with the most amount of aid sent to Ukraine, Jordan, and Ethiopia. Half of the funding went to either humanitarian or health and population purposes, while another $7 billion was spent on governance.
Foreign spending accounts for less than 1% of the US federal budget, though the US is the world’s largest humanitarian aid provider.
Many leading Democrats and legal analysts have argued that shuttering USAID is illegal, as an independent agency can only be closed by an act of Congress.
Five days into Trump’s term, the US froze billions in humanitarian aid intended for health, education, and anti-corruption purposes, among other purposes.
Trump has recently suggested his administration may try to shutter the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice.
