President Donald Trump wants the world's richest man, Elon Musk, to shrink the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency. And one of DOGE's first targets? USAID, the agency that focuses on foreign assistance. We talk to a USAID worker who is out of work this week and to WSJ’s Brian Schwartz about how powerful Musk and DOGE have become. Further Reading: -How Trump Gutted America’s $40 Billion Aid Agency in Two Weeks -Trump Hints at Curbs on Musk’s Powers After Billionaire Shakes Up Washington Further Listening: -DOGE: The Plan to Downsize the Government -Is DEI Done? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Marcy Hirsch Robinson has worked as a humanitarian aid worker for more than 20 years. In that time, she's lived and worked in over 30 countries, like Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ukraine.
I like to say that I am a stubborn optimist. I generally believe in the good of humans, and it feels like my responsibility as a privileged American to be able to contribute to people around the world in their darkest moments.
For the last three years, Marcy's been working for USAID, the U.S. agency that distributes foreign assistance around the world. When did you get the sense that the new administration was looking to take sort of major actions against USAID?
So it became startlingly obvious on Friday, January 24th. that this was not business as usual and that this transition from one administration to the next was unlike anything that any of my colleagues who've been in government for their entire careers had seen before.
And that's because on Friday, that was when we were told about stop work orders that had been issued affecting 100% of USAID programs. It was not made clear to us what that was or exactly how that would be implemented. We were just told that immediately all work had to stop.
The following Monday, dozens of senior officials with USAID were put on leave.
Many of my colleagues had expressed to me that they were feeling very anxious because they understood that any moment they would receive a stop work order themselves.
And the next day, they did. At noon on Tuesday, January 28th, hundreds of USAID contractors were laid off.
No one had any advance notice that this was coming. Everyone was crying. They were in shock. There was an announcement made sort of floor by floor of the office telling everyone who is an institutional support contractor that they needed to turn over their laptops and their phones. And as they followed that instruction, there was no person receiving their equipment. And so...
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