In Washington, D.C., USAID employees are banned from entering the headquarters: what is known

Employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) were ordered not to come to the headquarters in Washington on Monday, February 3. This followed Elon Musk's statement that Donald Trump had agreed to close the agency. This was reported by AP News, UNN.

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USAID officials said they had tracked down more than 600 employees who said they had been locked out of the agency's systems overnight.

Those who still had access to the system received emails stating that “on the instructions of the Agency's management, the headquarters building will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, February 3.

This comes after Musk, who is conducting an unprecedented government review with Trump's approval, said the president supported the USAID shutdown.

“It became clear that this is not an apple with a worm inside... We have a tangle of worms. We need to get rid of it completely. It's beyond repair... We're shutting it down,” Musk said during a live stream at X Spaces on Monday morning.

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Musk, Trump, and some Republicans have been increasingly critical of USAID, which runs humanitarian, economic, and security programs in 120 countries, accusing the agency of promoting liberal ideas.

Over the weekend, the Trump administration suspended two USAID security chiefs after they refused to turn over classified materials to Musk's teams conducting inspections of government agencies, U.S. officials told AP.

Earlier, Musk's government reform unit, known as DOGE, carried out a similar operation at the Treasury Department, gaining access to confidential data, including social security and Medicare systems. The Washington Post reported that a senior Treasury official resigned after the breach.

Democrats criticized these actions, saying that Trump has no right to close USAID without congressional approval. They also condemned Musk's access to government data during his inspections of federal agencies.

On Saturday, the USAID website disappeared without explanation, and the agency itself became one of the main targets of the Trump administration's attacks in its fight against federal agencies.

“It was controlled by a group of radical lunatics. And we're getting rid of them,” Trump told reporters on Sunday night about USAID.

Musk and Trump's comments came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio was abroad in Central America on his first official foreign visit.

Rubio has not yet spoken publicly about plans to close USAID.

The Trump and Rubio administrations have imposed an unprecedented foreign aid freeze that has halted most USAID programs around the world, forcing thousands of humanitarian workers to resign, and ordered furloughs and work suspensions that have effectively paralyzed the agency's leadership and staff in Washington.

Recall

At the parliamentary level , Ukraine has begun consultations with European countries on the possible replacement of American aid amid the suspension of funding for projects and programs in the country by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).