Rubio: I'm Now the Acting Director of USAID

Hours after Elon Musk boasted about throwing USAID "into the wood chipper" over the weekend. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was in charge of the foreign aid agency. Rubio, speaking to reporters in El Salvador, said he is now the acting administrator of USAID but he has delegated the day-to-day running of it to somebody else in the State Department, Politico reports. The announcement confirmed the "de-facto takeover of the humanitarian agency by the State Department," CNN notes. Rubio said he has long criticized the "completely unresponsive agency." He accused staffers of "deciding that they're somehow a global charity separate from the national interest or taxpayer dollars."

"That sort of level of insubordination makes it impossible to conduct a sort of mature and serious review," Rubio said. Elon Musk said Monday that it was time for USAID to "die" and President Trump had agreed that it should be "shut down." In a post on X, he said the foreign assistance agency was a "radical-left political psy op." Rubio, however, said, "this is not about ending USAID." He said "there are a lot of functions of USAID that are going to continue" under the oversight of the State Department

Last week, thousands of US-funded projects were halted and dozens of USAID officials were placed on leave. Staffers were told not to come to work Monday because its headquarters would be closed. On Sunday, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee warned Rubio against trying to dismantle the agency, which was created by Congress, the New York Times reports. "Any effort to merge or fold USAID into the Department of State should be, and by law must be, previewed, discussed, and approved by Congress," they wrote. (More USAID stories.)