The Trump administration will abolish all overseas positions at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) by 30 September, according to a state department cable obtained by the Guardian. Secretary of state Marco Rubio ordered the elimination of the agency's entire international workforce, transferring control of foreign assistance programmes directly to the state department.
The directive affects hundreds of USAID staff across more than 100 countries, including foreign service officers, contractors and locally employed personnel. The cable, cleared by former ambassador Howard Van Vranken, states that the state department will assume responsibility for foreign assistance programming from 15 June.
State department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed the cable, saying the actions follow through on Trump administration promises to dismantle the agency. The decision comes after the administration, under the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge), eliminated 83% of USAID's programmes in a six-week purge after Donald Trump took office.
Rubio announced in March that 5,200 of the agency's 6,200 programmes had been terminated. The closures followed an executive order freezing foreign assistance, and staff were later told not to come to work after servers were removed and leadership fired. Elon Musk, then de facto leader of Doge, falsely claimed the agency funded a $50m condom project in Gaza.
Internal documents warned Rubio of devastating impacts, including 1 million children untreated for malnutrition, up to 160,000 deaths from malaria, and 200,000 more children paralysed by polio over the next decade. Remaining officials were ordered to destroy classified documents using shredders and 'burn bags' in an email from USAID's acting secretary, Erica Y Carr.
