Rubio Says He Now Runs Aid Agency, as Staff Are Blocked From Systems

(You are being lied to. Elon Musk has contracts with USAID via Starlink. He has no intention of doing away with that revenue stream. Instead he and Little Lying Marco (Rubio) have every intention of doing away with the good programs USAID has so they can instead focus entirely on the CIA/State Department regime change operations. USAID has given 2.1 billion in aid to Gaza since Oct 7 2023. And now Elon, Trump, Marco Rubio and Netanyahu have shut that down and have installed a CIA/State Department asset to run USAID.)

from the New York Times

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that he had taken over as acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, assuming control of an agency that had functioned largely independently for over 60 years and stoking fears about U.S. assistance around the world.

Mr. Rubio’s announcement came after a week of drastic changes at U.S.A.I.D., the government’s lead agency for humanitarian aid and development assistance. Senior officials have been suspended, and hundreds of civil servants and contractors have been iced out of U.S.A.I.D. systems without warning.

Many of the cuts were rolled out in secret and without warning, as representatives of Elon Musk, who was deputized by President Trump to lead a task force to reduce government spending, took over its operations despite objections from aid workers and Democrats in Congress.

Speaking to reporters in El Salvador, Mr. Rubio said that many of U.S.A.I.D.’s programs were worthwhile and would continue under the umbrella of the State Department, promising to delegate the day-to-day operations to Pete Marocco, the department’s director of foreign assistance.

In a letter to the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate committees on foreign affairs and related appropriations, Mr. Rubio said that Mr. Marocco would “begin the review and potential reorganization of U.S.A.I.D.’s activities to maximize efficiency and align operations with the national interest.”

Mr. Rubio added that the review might include “the suspension or elimination” of programs, projects, missions, bureaus, centers and offices, and that the U.S.A.I.D. “may be abolished consistent with applicable law.”...

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