A worker removes the sign of the American international development agency on its head office on February 7, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kayla Bartkowski | Getty images
On Friday, a federal judge said that he would temporarily arouse the Trump administration plan to place thousands of workers at the American agency for international development on administrative leave.
About 2,200 USAID employees were to be placed on leave on Friday evening at 11:59 p.m. on Friday evening, as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to close the independent government agency.
Five hundred USAID workers are already on administrative leave, said a lawyer for the United States Ministry of Justice.
Judge Carl Nichols, one appointed by Trump, made the decision after hearing the arguments of the Trump administration and two groups representing federal workers in the American district court in Washington, DC
The groups of workers, the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government employees, had asked Nichols to order the Trump administration “to immediately cease actions to close the USAID operations”.
They had asserted a legal file earlier Friday that USAID “suffers from an attack on unconstitutional and illegal attacks, leaving its workers, entrepreneurs, deserted beneficiaries and a global humanitarian crisis at the time . “
The Trump administration “deliberately dismantled the USAID infrastructure” and is “ready to kill close to the final,” they wrote.
Nichols said on Friday afternoon that he was entering a “very limited” temporary prohibition prescription before midnight led by the 2,200 risk workers in USAID.
The judge said he had not yet decided if his decision would cancel the Trump administration’s recovery order for the 500 employees who have already received it.
During the hearing, Nichols questioned the MJ lawyer, Brett, explaining why the Trump administration was to place 2,200 USAID workers on leave so quickly.
“What is the urgency of this?” The judge asked.
“The president decided that there was corruption and fraud in the USAID,” replied Shumate.
USAID was created in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy following the adoption of the foreign assistance law. He administers foreign aid and leads a variety of other field missions in the world.
Foreign aid in recent years represented approximately 1% of the federal budget and less than 0.33% of GDP, according to a Brooking Institution Report from September.
But USAID has nevertheless become a major target of Elon Musk, who accused the agency of being an inexplicable magnet for fraud and corruption.
“Corruption is at levels rarely seen before. Close it!” Trump wrote On Truth Social Friday morning.
Musk, who is carrying out a radical effort to reduce the size of the government through the so-called ministry of efficiency of the White House government, or Doge, has taken credit for dismantling the USAID.
“We spent the weekend feeding Usaid in the wooden shredder,” wrote Musk on his social media platform X.
