A federal judge temporarily paused President Donald Trump’s decision to put 2,200 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on administrative leave on Friday.
American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees, two agencies that represent federal employees in Washington, D.C., asked Judge Carl Nichols to delay Trump’s decision, which was slated to “immediately cease actions to shut down USAID’s operations.”
Five-hundred USAID employees have already received the order to take administrative leave. Others were seen to be placed on leave by midnight on Friday. Nichols, who Trump appointed during his first term, said that his order would be “limited, very limited,” and would come late Friday.
When Nichols asked Department of Justice attorney Brett Shumate at a hearing on Friday why Trump felt the need to place thousands of workers on leave, Shumate said that “The President has decided there is corruption and fraud at USAID.”
The agency is supposed to oversee humanitarian, development, and security programs in more than 100 foreign countries but has attracted attention for its lengthy track record of prioritizing race-based and equity funding projects. During his first week in office, Trump issued an executive order placing a 90-day freeze on most foreign aid.
Trump along with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have railed against USAID recently, calling out the organization’s numerous examples of inefficiency and waste — such as the organization’s past decisions to devote $400 million to a digital technology project for LGBTQ people in Africa, or $53 million “to enable and empower local governments and vulnerable communities to realize their own resilient, low-carbon futures.”
While Trump argues that the agency is full of corruption, the workers’ groups wrote, USAID “is suffering an onslaught of unconstitutional and illegal attacks, leaving its workers, contractors, grantees, and beneficiaries deserted in the wreckage and a global humanitarian crisis in the wake.”
Although lawyers argued in court that Trump doesn’t have the authority to make such decisions at USAID, as the agency is independent and funded by Congress, he gave Secretary of State Marco Rubio the role of the agency’s acting director, who then delegated authority to former USAID worker Pete Marocco. Rubio has pledged to reorganize parts of USAID and abolish others and gave Marocco the green light to “begin the process of engaging in a review and potential reorganization of USAID’s activities to maximize efficiency and align operations with the national interest,” Rubio wrote in a letter to lawmakers.
“The Department of State and other pertinent entities will be consulting with Congress and the appropriate committees to reorganize and absorb certain bureaus, offices, and missions of USAID,” Rubio said. “USAID may move, reorganize, and integrate certain missions, bureaus, and offices into the Department of State, and the remainder of the Agency may be abolished consistent with applicable law.”
Trump praised Musk’s DOGE team for “finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste” during a press conference on Friday, adding that he has “instructed [Musk] to go check out Education, to check out the Pentagon, which is the military. And you know, sadly, you’ll find some things that are pretty bad.”
Musk did not attend the conference due to “death threats,” he said.