At the US Agency for International Development this week, worked as a team from the Department of Government Efficiency quietly to dismantle Aid Agency, those who had not already been locked out of his Washington headquarters, bused themselves with work that they never imagined Say to do – – shut it down.
“We feel like it’s closing time in the store, and we’re back to turning off the lights,” a career official told ABC News. “There are lots of tears, lots of heartache.”
Normal daily work ceased earlier this week when the Trump administration announced plans to place all employees with direct rent on leave on Friday, leaving career officials to focus on the logistical obstacles by remembering thousands of overseas employees back to the US, Including flights to these officials and their families.
“We could do the life -saving work we have done,” said the official, “but instead we are stuck here as travel agencies.”
Black plastic covers the space where letters in USAID were mounted on the building of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) headquarters in Washington, DC, on February 7, 2025.
Alex Wroblewski/EPA via Shutterstock
When the Congress Democrats are encrypted to save USAID, its thousands of employees in the United States and across the globe are struggling with how to “leave with dignity,” another official in the career agency said.
But it has proven to be a challenge. A message sent on USAID.Gov signaled that some “appointed staff” would remain on the job, causing a hectic race among the staff to secure their livelihood.
“It’s Hunger Games,” said another career, USAID official based in Washington. “They narrow lists to the smallest number of employees. People who are struggling to be on these lists.”
USAD staff Thursday digested news that everyone except approx. 600 employees would be placed on leave at the end of the week. President Trump has accused the agency of committing “huge fraud” and promoting leftist ideologies.
Meanwhile, officials deployed overseas face displacements of their own. The sudden stop-work orders and financing freezer imposed by the Trump administration have placed the Frontline USAID staff in the unpleasant position to explain to regional partners what is happening.
“Many of [the foreign service nationals] Has worked for USAID for 20-30 years, “said a USAID official stationed in the Democratic Republic Congo.” It is impossible to explain to them what is going on. It breaks their faith in America. We will lose thousands of our best friends and allies. “
A worker removes the US Agency for International Development Signs at their headquarters on February 7, 2025 in Washington.
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In another African country, the staff met earlier in the week to start choreographing their departure, a local USAD official remembered.
“The meeting today with local staff was tough,” the official said. “The ambassador was there and people were crying. It was extremely sad. Both the mission director and the Deputy Director were in tears too.”
An official with 20 years at USAID under their belt said the ambassador in their country urged the staff to “start preparing your resume and start looking for jobs, because inevitably you will all be completed.”
“[The administration is] Just terrorizes everyone in USAID who has served their country, sacrificing huge victims, moving around the world every four years, pulling children out of school and away from friends and liking spouses, important work around the world, “the official said. ” And I feel like it will be deleted. “
At the Agency’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, which has been the US government’s head responding coordinator of international disasters, several employees said their E -mail access was revoked, making them unable to communicate with senior officials.
A USAID -Contractor abroad said they were “permanently abroad on official trips without guidance on how to move on, where they are able to work, how to get home, or whether they are capable of work.”
Federal workers and supporters have signs that they demonstrate against Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) outside the Office of Personal Management (OM) headquarters in Washington, DC, 07 February 2025.
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On Thursday, State Secretary Marco Rubio, who supervises USAID as his acting administrator, insisted during a press conference in the Dominican Republic that the administration would accommodate “extraordinary circumstances in terms of families or shifts.”
“We’re not trying to be disturbing to people’s personal lives,” Rubio insisted. “We’re not punitive,” he said.
Back in Washington, Peter Marocco, a Trump Loyalist and architect for plans to drastically reduce the agency’s footprint, have been “in and out” of the building, but has not engaged in career officials or addressed any large number of employees. Marocco did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Rubio has said that the rank-and-file USAID officials had demonstrated “rank insubordination” while trying to review the agency and claimed the administration was left with “no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control. “
Late Thursday, when the working hours on the East Coast were held, shared a senior career on USAID this gloomy text message with ABC News: “I just lost my job.”
The official who spent almost a decade on the agency was not told she was dismissed. Instead, she said agency leaders warned those who will remain in their roles on Thursday afternoon, whereby the remaining employees would assume that they would be placed in administrative leave.
