The Trump administration is eliminating over a thousand positions at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), while also placing the majority of the remaining staff members on administration leave globally, just before midnight Sunday.
The Associated Press reported that it learned from the Trump administration that 1,600 posts would be eliminated after reviewing notices that were sent to USAID workers.
“As of 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAID direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally,” the notices read.
The Trump administration intends on leaving fewer than 300 staffers on the job, out of the current 8,000 contractors and direct hires.
USAID WORKERS SEND MESSAGE TO TRUMP ON BOXES WHILE LEAVING OFFICE FOR LAST TIME
Retired United States Agency for International Development worker Julie Hanson Swanson, left, join supporters of USAID workers outside the USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance office in Washington, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The less than 300 remaining staff, along with an unknown number of the 5,000 locally hired international staff members abroad, will run the few life-saving programs that the administration said it intends to keep in place for the time being.
Sacked USAID staffers left their Washington, D.C., offices for the last time on Friday, with some carrying boxes scrawled with messages that seemed to be directed at Trump, who is slashing the agency’s workforce.
“We are abandoning the world,” read one message on a box containing belongings being hauled out by a grinning staffer as she walked out of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance office.
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Recently fired U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) staff carry boxes with a message as they…
