President Trump isn’t messing around. In a bold move, he has placed as many as 60 senior bureaucrats at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on indefinite administrative leave for actions that deliberately circumvented his executive orders.
According to a memo from acting USAID administrator Jason Gray, “We have identified several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the president’s executive orders and the mandate from the American people.”
Gray added that those responsible have been placed on administrative leave — with full pay and benefits — while a thorough investigation of their actions is conducted.
Bring it on!
This shake-up comes on the heels of an executive order from President Trump last week, followed by accompanying instructions from the State Department. These directives ordered USAID to immediately halt the designation of new foreign aid funding, stop accepting applications for future funding, and issue “stop-work” orders to its grantees. While a small number of exemptions were permitted, these orders effectively put USAID’s operations into a state of suspended animation.
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Apparently, some within the agency decided they knew better and took matters into their own hands, directly defying the executive order.
This unprecedented action has essentially frozen most of USAID's $22.6 billion in program support in its tracks. That’s right, a large portion of the global projects USAID typically oversees is now on pause because bureaucrats decided to eff around and find out.
The order — sent via email to members of the senior executive and senior Foreign Service — was issued close to the end of the business day Monday and was effective immediately, according to two current USAID officials and three former USAID officials told of the communication. It comes as USAID and the State Department have been ordered to impose halts on a vast number of humanitarian and related programs around the world.
The decision appears to affect nearly every career staffer who holds a top leadership role at the agency, at least in Washington — around 60 officials, the current and former officials said.
The cuts have left many offices within the agency entirely devoid of senior non-political leadership. The entire cadre of leaders who run USAID’s bureau for global health, for example, was put on leave, according to two of the officials.
“This is a huge morale hit,” said a former senior Trump administration official who was also told of the move. “This is the leadership of the agency. This is like taking out all the generals. I don’t know what they hope to accomplish by it.”
A spokesperson for USAID did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As Colombian President Gustavo Petro found out, the new Trump administration isn’t playing games. Trump has learned a lot from his first term and isn’t tolerating insubordination in his second term.
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Bravo, President Trump. The swamp isn’t going to drain itself. This ought to be an easy lesson for other Deep State anti-Trumpers to learn: there's a new sheriff in town.
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