MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Overnight, USAID employees received an email stating the Washington headquarters is closed and telling them to stay home and work remotely today.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Nearly all the programs funded by the United States Agency for International Development - USAID - have been halted. President Trump seeks to remake the federal government and push the limits of executive power. In this case, the administration appears to be targeting an agency that was created by law, by an act of Congress. Right now, its website is down. Hundreds of employees and contractors have been let go in the past week, and we have reports that Trump is considering trying to fold the agency into the State Department.
MARTIN: White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez has been following all this, and he's with us now to tell us what he knows. Good morning, Franco.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So the president said something to reporters about this last night. What did he have to say?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, when he got back to the airport in Washington, Trump really tore into the agency, basically charging that it was poorly run.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It's been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we're getting them out. USAID, run by radical lunatics. And we're getting them out, and then we'll make a decision.
MARTIN: Did he give any evidence that this agency, as he said, is run by radical lunatics?
ORDOÑEZ: No, he did not. And he and his team, you know, do want greater control over the department or the work that they do. They want greater control over the spending, and they feel that too much money is going to causes that are not in U.S. interests. Now, lawmakers are concerned. Democrats have actually warned that Trump cannot just shut down USAID on its own without going through Congress.
MARTIN: A few hours after Trump spoke, Elon Musk, the tech mogul who is running this Department of Government Efficiency, spoke on X - which he owns - about his plans.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, he definitely has big intentions here. He says DOGE is in the process of specifically shutting down USAID, and he emphasizes that he could not do that without the support of the president. He actually said he went over it with Trump a few times. He asked him was he sure. You know, I mentioned earlier that Congress was concerned about all this. Musk didn't mention any statute or authority that would allow the president to basically skip Congress and shut down the agency unilaterally. That said, Trump does seem to be standing behind Musk, saying that he is doing a great job while even acknowledging that they might not agree all the time, that he's behind him.
MARTIN: Are there concerns that this new entity that this administration created, DOGE, is exceeding its authority?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, DOGE, of course, is this department that's tasked with leading substantial cost-cutting. You know, and it's not just about shutting down the department. You know, over the weekend, there were reports of two security officials at USAID who were put on administrative leave for refusing DOGE access to certain systems. Democrats have accused DOGE of inappropriately accessing, you know, classified materials, which the lawmakers are saying they're going to investigate. I will note that their spokesman, DOGE spokesman Katie Miller, said no classified material was accessed without clearances.
MARTIN: And does this tie in with other changes happening under this administration, or if so, how?
ORDOÑEZ: Michel, it caps off, like, such a week of chaos. USAID was not the only website taken down. Some other websites were down temporarily. There is just so much fear and uncertainty across the federal workforce, and it really does look like that's all by design.
MARTIN: That is White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Franco, thank you.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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