Last week, hundreds of internal contractors working at the United States Agency for International Development (the United States Agency for International Development) were placed on an unpaid vacation, and some of them were terminated after President Donald Trump imposed a comprehensive freeze on US foreign aid worldwide.

But for billionaire Elon MuskThe US International Development Agency financing is temporarily not enough.

Musk wrote on the social media platform X on Monday, “It is time to die.”

“It is an irreplaceable thing,” Musk said in a separate publication, adding that Trump agrees to be closed.

Musk’s comments, which were appointed by Trump to lead the new Ministry of Governmental efficiency (Doge)It sparked a growing debate about the future of the Relief Agency.

Here is a look at what the agency is and its role at the global level:

What is happening?

The American Agency for International Development, whose website disappeared on Saturday without explanation, was one of the federal agencies most targeted by the Trump administration in an escalation campaign on the federal bureaucracy and many of its programs.

“It has been operated by a group of radical madmen, and we take them out,” Trump told reporters of the United States Agency for International Development on Sunday evening.

The invitation of musk to the shivering Al -Wakhdah came the Wikarit engine after security officials denied members of The business squad arrives to reduce costs To restrict the areas at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

Quoted by officials whose name was not revealed, the multiple American media reported that the U.S. Security Director for International Development, John Faris, and his deputy, Brian McGil, had been placed on leave after being deprived of the entry of Doug employees into insurance areas because of their security lack.

Doug’s representatives, who were created by executive order by Trump but not a government ministry, were ultimately able to reach areas with secret information after the confrontation, which was first reported by CNN.

The White House denied that Duji staff tried to reach the restricted areas, but Katie Miller, working in Doug, seemed to have admitted to trying to enter the business squad, and writing on X that “it was not accessed to classified materials without appropriate security permits.”

Cancellation of the US Agency for International Development and all external aid. https://t.co/vx239Nyles

Rand Paul (@Randbol) February 1, 2025

What was the reaction to Musk’s invitation to close the US Agency for International Development?

After criticizing Musk, members of Congress moved to social media to discuss whether the US Agency for International Development could be closed and must be closed permanently.

“Trump was purifying and intimidating the US Agency for International Development. Chuck Schumer, leader of the Senate -controlled Senate, said on X. now.

Republican Senator Rand Paul responded to Schumer, saying: “The US Agency for International Development and all external aid.”

Democratic Senator Chris Konz weighs X, saying that eliminating the agency would make the United States “less safe.”

He said on Sunday: “President Trump spent two weeks in harassing and setting the United States Agency for International Development, and now his team is trying to completely wipe the agency.” “These are the patriotic Americans who promote our leadership all over the world.”

President Trump spent two weeks in harassing and setting the United States Agency for International Development, and now his team is trying to completely pass the agency. These are the patriotic Americans who promote our leadership all over the world.
It makes us safer. Trump makes us less safe. https://t.co/qfqljbj2u

Senator Chriscoons (Christocoons) February 2, 2025

What is the American Agency for International Development, and when did it start?

In an effort headed by President John F. Kennedy, the United States Agency for International Development was established as part of the 1961 foreign aid law. It has brought major changes to programs abroad by combining many current organizations and programs in one, according to an archive of the US Development Agency International website.

“Until then, there was not a single agency accused of foreign economic development,” according to the site.

According to the official website of the United States Government, the US Agency for International Development is “the main US agency to provide assistance to disaster countries, trying to escape poverty, and participate in democratic reforms.”

Andrew Natsasius, a former USA official for International Development, wrote in 2020 that the agency contributed to success in the United States during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

“I would like to claim that the greatest success stories in the US Agency for International Development during the Cold War were directly related to the American national interests,” he said. “Certainly, these successes have benefited from the United States, but they also benefited from developing countries as they moved to the advanced developed countries.”

“While there are definitely failures in political aid, there were much more successful successes.”

Before freezing, the agency was the world’s largest donor. In the fiscal year 2023, the United States spent $ 72 billion from assistance around the world on everything from women’s health in conflict areas to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS, energy security and anti -corruption.

The US International Development Agency provided 42 percent of all the humanitarian aid followed by the United Nations in 2024 and has more than 10,000 people.

What countries have received the largest aid?

In 2023, Ukraine received more than $ 14.4 billion from the United States Agency for International Development.

The second highest recipient, Jordan, received $ 770 million of economic aid through the United States Agency for International Development. Yemen and Afghanistan received $ 359.9 million and $ 332 million, respectively.

The United States Agency for International Development is not the only US agency to spend foreign aid, but it is the largest with a group of $ 42.45 billion, followed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ($ 19 billion).

What is the criticism that the US Agency for International Development has received over the years?

The agency’s criticism of its agenda in foreign policy ranged to its efficiency.

In 2014, the United States Agency for International Development was accused of establishing a “secret”Cuban TwitterZunzuneo called for moving the unrest and undermining the Cuban government. It was also criticized for its secret nature. The United States Agency for International Development denied that the project was designed to create an opposition.

In 2023, the President of Mexico asked his American counterpart, Joe Biden, to prevent the United States Agency for International Development from hostile financing groups for his government, according to a letter to journalists, echoing the former Mexican Criticism of US intervention.

At the time, then President Andres Manuel Lopez Oberrador did not specify the Mexican groups that the United States must stop funding, but in the past accused many media organizations of being part of a conservative movement against his government.

He said in the letter: “The United States government, specifically through the United States Agency for International Development, was for some time that organizations are publicly funded against the legal and legitimate government that it represents,” he said in the letter. “It is clear that this is an intervention work, unlike international law and the relations that must prevail between free and sovereign countries.”

While the United States has long described its external aid programs, as it aims, in part, to enhance small democracies, the US Agency for International Development to support friendly authoritarian regimes during the Cold War, including Taiwan and South Korea, has been used when they were under rule. Military and Democratic Republic of Congo under MobUTU Sese Seko.

Recently, the performance review of the US Inspector Office of the United States Agency for International Development, which was conducted by the ADELES, and Adley & Companyi, has highlighted the lack of efficiency and bureaucratic challenges faced by the agency regarding indirect cost rates. These prices indicate the general or administrative costs that the organization can impose on a Federal grant or contract.

“The indirect costs are a legitimate cost of doing business only to the extent that it is reasonable, allowed, and customized,” according to the results of 2024 on the USA website for international development.

The audit found that the US International Development Agency systems need improvement and noticed that it does not have appropriate monitoring operations related to indirect costs.

“The US Agency for International Development does not have appropriate documents to support indirect costs,” she said.

What happens after that?

Currently, Trump has not submitted any official announcement of the US Agency for International Development.

However, many fear that the United States’ funds will harm Washington’s allies – and create a vacuum whose opponents can sought pleasure to fill it.

Eastern Europe, for example, was a geopolitical battlefield for a long time as Western foreign policy interests collide with the interests of Moscow or Beijing.

The influence of China in Latin America and sub -Saharan Africa has been growing, and has become an increasingly important and invested commercial partner in recent years while the United States has retired from aid.

In October, the Chinese Development Bank (CDB) announced that it provided about $ 160 billion to help finance hundreds of projects throughout Latin America. Sub -Saharan Africa got the most aid from the United States in 2023, but China increases its presence there by providing competitive assistance.

Senator Konz said that the possibility of closing the United States Agency for International Development creates more space for China to expand its power.

“It weakens the American leadership and leaves the world more open to the Chinese influence. Konz said on Saturday on X.