Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the U.S. Agency for International Development has been rolled into the State Department, with Rubio now its acting director as a result of some legally questionable maneuvers.
“I’m the acting director of USAID,” he said. “I’ve delegated that authority to someone, but I stay in touch with him.”
Rubio further accused the agency that now reports to him of “insubordination” for being uncooperative “with people asking simple questions.”
The secretary did not elaborate on who was asking the questions but was presumably referring to Elon Musk, who went on a tirade against the agency over the weekend.
The agency’s website disappeared Saturday without explanation after Musk called it “a criminal organization” on social media and said it was “time for it to die.”
At the same time Rubio claimed to be in charge of the agency, upwards of 1,000 USAID employees overseas were abruptly cut off from their government-provided equipment, according to independent journalist Ken Klippenstein.
The move left diplomats unable to access a crisis response app used to alert officials to security threats abroad, including people stationed in active conflict zones like Ukraine and Gaza.
At an emergency press conference held just outside the USAID offices on Monday, Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) pushed back on Trump and Elon Musk’s abrupt efforts to shutter the agency.
“I talked to the security guard just in there,” Kim told reporters. “He said he has been given specific orders to prevent employees of USAID from entering the building today. I just find that to be absolutely ridiculous. This is no way to govern.”
Kim called for Congress to take immediate action and wrest back control from “mysterious people” installed by Musk, who are sending out emails to federal employees “telling them not to show up.”
He said that Musk and Trump are acting well outside of their legal authority.
“What is happening here is illegal,” Kim told reporters. ”It is unacceptable to have a president try, through executive power, to reorganize or remove USAID. This is an agency created through federal statute, codified through federal statute, and something that cannot be changed, cannot be removed except through actions of Congress.”
Rubio also visited Panama this weekend on his first foreign trip in office, where Panamanians responded to Trump’s threats to seize the Panama Canal by burning an effigy of him in the street.