
MAGA Goes FAFO: Trump Purges USAID Leadership for Defying Executive Orders
by Matt Margolis
President Trump isn’t messing around. In a bold move, he has placed as many as 60 senior bureaucrats at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on indefinite administrative leave for actions that deliberately circumvented his executive orders.
According to a memo from acting USAID administrator Jason Gray, “We have identified several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the president’s executive orders and the mandate from the American people.”
Gray added that those responsible have been placed on administrative leave — with full pay and benefits — while a thorough investigation of their actions is conducted.
Bring it on!
This shake-up comes on the heels of an executive order from President Trump last week, followed by accompanying instructions from the State Department. These directives ordered USAID to immediately halt the designation of new foreign aid funding, stop accepting applications for future funding, and issue “stop-work” orders to its grantees. While a small number of exemptions were permitted, these orders effectively put USAID’s operations into a state of suspended animation.
Apparently, some within the agency decided they knew better and took matters into their own hands, directly defying the executive order.
This unprecedented action has essentially frozen most of USAID’s $22.6 billion in program support in its tracks. That’s right, a large portion of the global projects USAID typically oversees is now on pause because bureaucrats decided to eff around and find out.