The Daily Populous Monday February 3rd, 2025 evening edition
Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by Drtysouth205

Elon Musk, who is heading Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal government, has said they are working to shut down the foreign aid agency USAid, in a social media discussion on X early on Monday.

The conversation, which included former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican senator Joni Ernst and Mike Lee, began with Musk saying they were working to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAid).

“It’s beyond repair,” Musk said, adding that Trump agreed it should be shut down.

On Sunday, Reuters reported the Trump administration removed two top security officials at USAid during the weekend after they tried to stop representatives from billionaire Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, from gaining access to restricted parts of the building, three sources said.

USAid is the world’s largest single donor. In fiscal year 2023, the US disbursed $72bn of assistance worldwide on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/Aids treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work. It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.

The website of USAid appeared to still be offline on Saturday and some users could not access it on Sunday. USAid has a staff of more than 10,000 people.

Trump has ordered a global freeze on most US foreign aid as part of his “America First” policy which is already sending shock waves 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.

Speaking more broadly about cutting US expenses and fraud, Musk estimated the Trump administration can cut $1tn from the US deficit next year. Musk did not offer any evidence to support his fraud claim or explain how he reached the amount of $1tn.

He asserted, for example, that “professional foreign fraud rings” are stealing vast sums by masquerading as or creating fake digital US citizens.

The online chat comes amid concerns about Musk’s access to the Treasury system, first reported by the New York Times, that sends out more than $6tn a year in payments on behalf of federal agencies and contains the personal information of millions of Americans who receive social security payments, tax refunds and other moneys from the government.

Democrat Peter Welch, a member of the Senate finance committee, called for explanations as to why Musk had been handed access to the payment system and what Welch said included taxpayers’ sensitive data.

“It’s a gross abuse of power by an unelected bureaucrat and it shows money can buy power in the Trump White House,” Welch said in an emailed statement.

Musk has Trump’s support. Asked if Musk was doing a good job on Sunday, Trump agreed. “He’s a big cost-cutter. Sometimes we won’t agree with it and we’ll not go where he wants to go. But I think he’s doing a great job. He’s a smart guy. Very smart. And he’s very much into cutting the budget of our federal budget.“

upnorthguy218 on February 3rd, 2025 at 08:29 UTC »

In a normal world congress would be losing their minds over this, the amount of power they’re ceding to an unelected lackey is nuts. Someone needs to stand up soon.

Edit: if you’re reading this, call your representatives. I just called my senators and my congressperson, I was able to get through twice and left a voicemail once. The fact that I got through at all is disheartening, their lines should be flooded right now.

I understand that there’s more we can do, but having our elected representatives sound the alarm is a start.

FDSoup on February 3rd, 2025 at 08:19 UTC »

At this point I want to see where the breaking point is with some folks, I can’t imagine less than a month and some aren’t planning some push back.

usaf_photog on February 3rd, 2025 at 08:15 UTC »

Next he will say Medicaid, Medicare, SSDI, and Social Security is beyond repair.