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       WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Friday USAID should “close,” in an escalation of his already unprecedented campaign to dismantle the massive government aid agency.

       “The corruption is at levels rarely seen before. Close it down!” Trump wrote in a statement on his Truth Social app.

       The US president has launched a crusade led by his top donor and the world’s richest man Elon Musk to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government.

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       The most concentrated fire has been on the United States Agency for International Development, the primary organisation for distributing US humanitarian aid around the world.

       The Trump administration has ordered thousands of foreign-based staff to return to the United States and frozen foreign aid.

       On Thursday a report in The New York Times said the current USAID headcount of 10,000 employees would be reduced to around 300.

       Labour unions are challenging the legality of the onslaught which includes offers of buyouts by Musk to federal workers across the entire government.

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       Democrats in Congress say it would be unconstitutional for Trump to shut down government agencies without greenlight from the legislature.

       Trump has also announced he wants to close the Department of Education.

       The United States current budget allocates $58 billion for international assistance.

       However, while Washington is the biggest aid donor in the world, the money has amounted to no more than 0.7 to 1.4 per cent of total government spending in the last quarter century, according to the Pew Research Center.

       Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2025