The Elon Musk-led attack on USAID and reports the businessman’s team had gained access to the Treasury’s massive payments system spurred Democrats into action.
Democrats joined protesters and agency staff to sound the alarm about what they call a wholesale takeover of the US government by Donald Trump’s billionaire friend Elon Musk and DOGE.
“I can’t work from home because I can’t get on my computer,” Drye, 31, said. “So I came here to see what I could do.”“Here” was outside the US Agency for International Development building in central Washington – the headquarters of America’s foreign aid and development agency. “They would not let us in because they had orders from DOGE and Elon Musk not to,” Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen said. “People should understand that this has been an Elon Musk takeover of USAID and we need to stop them there.”
Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, speaks outside the US Agency for International Development headquarters in Washington, DC.On Monday , the State Department confirmed Trump had appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as acting administrator of USAID, and a review into its activities was under way “with an eye towards potential reorganisation”.
The DOGE is not an actual government department, but a team established within the Executive Office of the President. Musk is now considered a “special government employee”, the White House said – a designation that allows the world’s richest man to work for the federal government but potentially avoid disclosure rules about conflicts of interest and finances that apply to regular government positions.
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