USAID Officials Put on Leave for Allegedly Flouting Trump Order

The top US aid and development agency is in disarray following the abrupt freeze on foreign aid issued by the State Department on Friday. Thousands of humanitarian, development, and security programs funded by the US had either halted their work or were in the process of doing so, and employees of those programs were being laid off en masse due to lack of funding. At the US Agency for International Development or USAID, at least 56 senior officials were placed on paid leave Monday as hundreds of contractors were laid off, sources tell the AP. According to an internal USAID notice, the senior officials were placed on leave after the federal agency's new acting administrator identified "several actions" at the agency "that appear to be designed to circumvent the President's Executive Orders," necessitating an "analysis."

The notice did not specify which of President Trump's executive orders the employees are accused of trying to thwart, but many who work in the aid sector have been sounding the alarm since the freeze was issued. "If this is implemented as written, it means that nutrition and water programs fighting famine in Sudan will stop work. Health clinics in Gaza providing lifesaving health care will stop work. HIV patients will stop receiving their antiretroviral treatments," a former USAID official told the Washington Post after the freeze was issued last week. Others who spoke to the Post underscored their fear that people will die as a result. In new interviews with the Post after the USAID news came out Monday, one anonymous aid worker said the administration is trying to clear out anyone at the agency who thinks the aid freeze is a bad idea.

Indeed, the Guardian reports that USAID staffers have been threatened with disciplinary action if they ignore the Trump administration's orders regarding aid. Per Politico, which first reported the USAID officials being placed on leave, "the decision appears to affect nearly every career staffer who holds a top leadership role at the agency, at least in Washington." Many have served in multiple administrations, including Trump's last one. (Another consequence of the aid freeze: Nonprofits have been told to stop clearing mines.)