The U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) workforce will be slashed to just a few hundred employees from the weekend onwards.
On Thursday, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration plans to reduce the agency’s staff from over 10,000 employees worldwide to around 290, citing three sources familiar with the plans.
National Public Radio (NPR) reported that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been presented with a list of some 600 employees considered essential worldwide but ultimately exempted fewer than 300 from the staff cuts.
U.S. President Donald Trump had already frozen the agency’s funds in January pending an internal review, impacting a vast array of initiatives around the globe.
USAID is one of the largest aid agencies in the world and is responsible for doling out much of the U.S. government’s humanitarian assistance to developing countries and countries in crisis.
Last year, the agency oversaw roughly $50 billion in development aid projects.
Trump has repeatedly claimed it is run by “radical lunatics” seeking to hinder his America First foreign policy agenda.
Other critics accuse the agency of being a tool the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) uses to infiltrate foreign governments, topple regimes, and impose American values on sovereign states.
This week, the U.S. government announced that it would place a large proportion of its employees on leave from Friday night.
Those affected by the exemptions will be informed one day in advance, said the agency, which is under the acting leadership of Rubio.
