Secretary of State Marco Rubio Appointed Acting Administrator of USAID
WASHINGTON, DC – The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has been appointed acting administrator of a US funding agency that provides aid to the Caribbean and other countries worldwide.
The State Department said that Rubio, a former US Senator, who was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants, will now serve as acting administrator for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
USAID said on its website that it is “the principal US agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms”.
But the State Department said in a statement that “USAID has long strayed from its original mission of responsibly advancing American interests abroad, and it is now abundantly clear that significant portions of USAID funding are not aligned with the core national interests of the United States.
“As an interim step toward gaining control and better understanding over the agency’s activity, President Donald J. Trump appointed Secretary Marco Rubio as acting administrator,” the statement added.
It said Rubio has “also now notified Congress that a review of USAID’s foreign assistance activities is underway with an eye towards potential reorganization.
“As we evaluate USAID and ensure it is in alignment with an America First agenda and the efforts of the State Department, we will continue to protect the American people’s interests and ensure their tax dollars are not wasted,” according to the statement.
On Monday, Elon Musk – considered the world’s richest man, who Trump has appointed to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency – said that the president has given him permission to shut down USAID.
“It became apparent that its not an apple with a worm it in,” said Musk, who contributed heavily to Trump’s re-election campaign.
“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,” ” added the Chief Executive Officer of Tesla and SpaceX.
On Sunday, Trump told reporters that he was getting rid of USAID, claiming that: “It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out.”
But, as demonstrators protested Trump’s decision on Monday, outside of USAID headquarters in Washington, some Democratic legislators have strongly opposed the decision, claiming that the president is “trampling the Constitution” and infringing on workers’ rights.
“This is a killer in terms of their cutoff of HIV and AIDS preemption,” Democrat Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who represents thousands of federal workers among his constituents, told National Public Radio (NPR).
“It’s a killer in terms of the anti-malarial education.”
New Jersey Democrat Andy Kim also told NPR that USAID is “an entity that was created through federal statute, codified through federal statute, and something that cannot be changed, cannot be removed except through actions of Congress”.
