WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Congressional Democrats were denied entry Monday to the USAID building as federal law enforcement officers blocked the doors, restricting lawmakers鈥� access to even the public lobby of the agency鈥檚 headquarters.
The move came after Democrats blasted Elon Musk and members of his DOGE task force from demanding and gaining access to the internal government systems despite not being an official government agency.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP鈥檚 earlier story follows below.
WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development were instructed to stay out of the agency鈥檚 Washington headquarters, and yellow police tape and officers blocked the agency's lobby on Monday, after billionaire Elon Musk announced President Donald Trump had .
USAID staffers also said more than 600 additional employees had reported being locked out of the aid agency鈥檚 computer systems overnight. Those still in the system received emails saying that 鈥渁t the direction of Agency leadership鈥� the headquarters building 鈥渨ill be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.鈥� The agency's website vanished Saturday without explanation.
The fast-moving developments come after thousands of USAID employees already have been laid off and programs shut down in the two weeks since President Donald Trump took office. And they show the extraordinary power of Musk and his , or DOGE, in the Trump administration. Musk announced closing of the agency early Monday, as Trump鈥檚 secretary of state, , was out of the country on a trip to Central America.
At a stop in El Salvador, Rubio told reporters that USAID was an uncooperative and opaque agency that had failed to answer questions about its funding or operate in line with the Trump administration's policy agenda.
鈥淎nd that sort of level of insubordination makes it impossible to conduct the sort of mature and serious review that I think foreign aid, writ large, should have,鈥� said Rubio, who added that he was acting director of USAID but also had delegated that authority.
The upheaval follows Trump ordering , with widespread effects around the world. The moves by the U.S., the world's largest provider of humanitarian aid, have upended decades of policy that put humanitarian, development and security assistance in the center of efforts to build alliances and counter adversaries including China and Russia.
U.S. and international companies have been forced to shut down tens of thousands of programs globally, leading to furloughs, layoffs and financial crises that have left many fearing the aid community has been too damaged by the freeze to resume work even if funding resumes.
Democratic lawmakers have protested the moves, saying Trump lacks constitutional authority to shut down USAID without congressional approval and decrying Musk鈥檚 accessing sensitive government-held information through his Trump-sanctioned inspections of federal government agencies and programs.
鈥淭his is a corrupt abuse of power that is going on," Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said at a rally with agency supporters and other Democratic lawmakers in front of the USAID building. 鈥淎s my colleague said, it鈥檚 not only a gift to our adversaries, but trying to shut down the Agency for International Development by executive order is plain illegal.鈥�
On Monday, two State Department employees who tried to get into the USAID offices said they were turned away by security guards. Later, uniformed Department of Homeland Security officers and security officers blocked the lobby of the USAID鈥檚 headquarters using yellow tape with the words 鈥渄o not cross.鈥�
The white USAID flag still flew on the empty plaza in front of the agency headquarters Monday morning. Staffers said employees earlier Monday had been able to reach other parts of the agency to clear personal belongings from their offices.
Musk, who's leading an extraordinary civilian review of the federal government with Trump's agreement, said early Monday that he had spoken with Trump about the six-decade U.S. aid and development agency and 鈥渉e agreed we should shut it down.鈥�
鈥淚t became apparent that it's not an apple with a worm it in,鈥� Musk said in a live session on X Spaces early Monday. 鈥淲hat we have is just a ball of worms. You鈥檝e got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It鈥檚 beyond repair.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e shutting it down,鈥� he said.
Musk, Trump and some Republican lawmakers have targeted the U.S. aid and development agency, which oversees humanitarian, development and security programs in some 120 countries, in increasingly strident terms, accusing it of promoting liberal causes.
Since Trump took office, appointees brought in from his first term such as Peter Marocco placed more than 50 senior officials on leave for investigation without public explanation, gutting the agency鈥檚 leadership. When the agency鈥檚 personnel chief announced that the allegations against them were groundless and tried to reinstate them, he was placed on leave as well.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration placed two top security chiefs at USAID after they refused to turn over classified material in restricted areas to Musk鈥檚 government-inspection teams, a current and a former U.S. official said.
earlier carried out , gaining access to sensitive information including the Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems. The Washington Post reported that a senior Treasury official had resigned over Musk鈥檚 team accessing sensitive information.
USAID, meanwhile, has been by the Trump administration in an escalating and many of its programs.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been run by a bunch of radical lunatics. And we鈥檙e getting them out,鈥� Trump said to reporters about USAID on Sunday night.
The Trump administration has shut down much of USAID鈥檚 aid programs worldwide, including an HIV-AIDS program started by Republican President George W. Bush credited with saving more than 20 million lives in Africa and elsewhere. Aid contractors spoke of millions of dollars in medication and other goods now stuck in port that they were forbidden to deliver.
Other programs that would shut down provided education to schoolgirls in Afghanistan under Taliban rule and monitored an Ebola outbreak spreading in Uganda. A USAID-supported crisis monitoring program, which was credited for helping prevent repeats of the 1980s famine in Uganda that killed up to 1.2 million people, has gone offline.
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Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. AP reporter Farnoush Amiri contributed from Washington.
Ellen Knickmeyer, Fatima Hussein And Adriana Gomez Licon, The Associated Press
