Musk says he's working to shut down USAID as employees told to stay home

42 points by segasaturn 5 months ago | 19 comments
  • Glyptodon 5 months ago
    Without a law that says USAID can be shut down or reorganized (or not funded) it seems that this is pretty much by definition entirely illegal regardless of one's opinions about USAID.
    • 5 months ago
      • taylodl 5 months ago
        Pretty much everything they've been doing is illegal. The million-dollar question is whether they'll be held to account. Trump has a pretty good track record of facing little to no consequences for his crimes. The pessimist in me says this time will be no different. We'll see.
        • CamperBob2 5 months ago
          Question to ponder: if Trump and Musk were hostile foreign agents, how would they behave differently?
          • taylodl 5 months ago
            Be less obvious that they're out to destroy America. A hostile foreign agent would be too concerned with having their cover blown if they were that obvious.
            • tartoran 5 months ago
              That's only under the assumption they were competent.
            • cheaprentalyeti 5 months ago
              They'd give money to Ecohealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology to find new and exciting viruses for the CCP's bioweapon program.

              Which USAID has already done.

              • CamperBob2 5 months ago
                Even if that were true -- which until proven, it's not -- Trump and his henchmen do not have the authority to change it.
          • ein0p 5 months ago
            Wonders never cease: HN now supports the CIA regime change front that funded coups in dozens of countries, as well as laundered hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to all sorts of shady special interest groups and political operatives domestically and abroad, and was responsible for funding illegal GoF research that led to COVID. Is this really the organization y'all want to carry water for?
            • dave4420 5 months ago
              Rule of law, mate, rule of law. Lose that and you lose everything.
              • ein0p 5 months ago
                Reorganizing USAID into State Dept is lawful. That's what's going to happen.
                • CamperBob2 5 months ago
                  Not if it has the effect of circumventing Congressional funding discretion.
            • legitster 5 months ago
              > But President Trump was less definitive about shuttering the agency, telling reporters on Sunday night that USAID was run by "a bunch of radical lunatics".

              > "We're getting them out," he said, "and then we'll make a decision."

              This is pretty wild considering USAID is an extension of the state department, sits with the National Security Council, and closely works with the CIA. However you feel about USAID, the point of the org is to prevent humanitarian crises from becoming more expensive security issues.

              If the argument is that the USAID is too left leaning, oh boy I can't imagine what they have in store.

              • Terr_ 5 months ago
                In a way the argument doesn't matter, because there's a good chance it's just a lie they don't believe themselves.

                Fascists will prioritize accumulating power, even if that means destroying previous allies. They don't care whether you think some of they ways they do, you've got something and they want it and might makes right.

            • 5 months ago