Elon Musk shuts down government agency just hours after taking control of it

He has previously attacked the organisation on X

The "first buddy" of President Trump shut down the government agency which was tasked with humanitarian relief overseas after they came to the conclusion that the organisation was "beyond repair".

The news came as a shock to staff who received an email on Monday morning telling them to stay out of the agency's headquarters in Washington D.C.

Musk spoke about the 63-year old aid organisation known as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) describing it as a "ball of warms".

The Tesla owner said: "It became apparent that it's not an apple with a worm it in, what we have is just a ball of worms. You've got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It's beyond repair. 

"We're shutting it down," he said on his X account.

The billionaire said he had spoken with Donald Trump and agreed it should be shut down.

According to data from 2016, USAID employs 10,235 people and managed more than $40 billion dollars in appropriations in Fiscal Year 2023.

This is less than 1% of the federal budget.

The website for USAID was also shutdown as of Monday morning.  

This all comes after the new Trump administration put two top security chiefs at USAID on leave after they had refused to hand over classified material in restricted areas to Musk's government-inspection teams, a U.S. official revealed on Sunday.

Members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) did eventually get into the USAID's classified information which include intelligence reports.

The two USAID security officials, John Voorhees and deputy Brian McGill believed themselves legally obligated to deny access to DOGE, claiming Musk's organisation didn't have high enough security clearance.

Musk had already taken aim at the organisation on Sunday evening on X after Trump had branded the department "run by radical lunatics".

Musk wrote: "USAID is a criminal organization.

"Time for it to die"

He proceeded to link the department to a host of allegations which he did not provide evidence for.

Trump attacked the agency on the weekend as he said the department had "been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we're getting them out... and then we'll make a decision (on its future)."