USAID Workers Pack Up Desks As Supporters Cheer Their Service

Supporters hold banners as USAID workers retrieve their personal belongings from the agency's headquarters in Washington on Feb. 27, 2025. — Supporters hold banners as USAID workers retrieve their personal belongings from the agency’s headquarters in Washington on Feb. 27, 2025.

U.S. Agency for International Development workers packing up their belongings were greeted by an outpouring of support Thursday as protesters demonstrated outside the agency’s Washington headquarters.

President Donald Trump’s administration, acting in coordination with Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk, has laid off 1,600 USAID workers and put 4,080 on leave, all of whom contributed to the agency’s goal of providing humanitarian assistance in more than 120 countries. Trump also enacted a 90-day pause on foreign aid after his administration slashed over 90% of the agency’s foreign aid awards.

Just a sliver of USAID workers will remain actively working as Trump, Musk and the administration work to essentially restructure the U.S. government.

Impacted USAID workers could only obtain their belongings from the agency’s headquarters at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., during specific time slots on Thursday and Friday, according to the USAID website.

Samantha Power, a former U.S. ambassador and administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, denounced the Trump administration's actions outside USAID headquarters on Feb. 27, 2025. — Samantha Power, a former U.S. ambassador and administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, denounced the Trump administration’s actions outside USAID headquarters on Feb. 27, 2025.

“The manner in which this is being done is the exact opposite of USAID’s mission,” former USAID Administrator Samantha Power said, according to NPR. “USAID’s mission is about elevating human dignity, and this is about trampling it at every turn.”

In a show of support for the impacted workers, dozens of protesters stood outside the building with signs that said, “Thank you for your service,” “You made America great,” and more.

Thousands of USAID workers who were fired or placed on leave were given a 15-minute window to clear out their workspaces.

USAID, created during former President John F. Kennedy’s administration, costs $40 billion a year, a figure that pales in comparison to proposed GOP tax cuts.

Regardless, Trump, Musk and Republicans have targeted the agency and spread conspiracy theories about its operations.

“It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics. And we’re getting them out,” Trump said earlier this month.

Musk wrote on social media that USAID is “a viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America” and “a criminal organization.”

Most employees at USAID had been placed on leave or fired by midnight on Feb. 23, the aid agency said.

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Twenty-five-year-old Juliane Alfen, who worked for USAID, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the dismantling of the agency was “heartbreaking.”

“I felt like we made a difference,” Alfen said. “To see everything disappearing before our eyes in a matter of weeks is very scary.”

People gather outside the Ronald Reagan Building during a "clap out" in support of United States Agency for International Development staff. — People gather outside the Ronald Reagan Building during a “clap out” in support of United States Agency for International Development staff.

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