I’ve been following the story of how the Trump administration has effectively dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Here’s my recent reporting for NPR.

Why does Musk want USAID ‘to die’? And why did its website disappear?

It’s been a tumultuous weekend for USAID — the U.S. Agency for International Development. On Saturday sometime after 3 a.m., its website went down, according to the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group that tracks web pages.

Some browsers display the error message: “This site can’t be reached. Check if there is a typo in www.usaid.gov.”

The agency’s account on X (formerly Twitter) has also been deleted.

Early Monday morning, Elon Musk, speaking during a live “Space” conversation on X, said his Department of Government Efficiency is in the process of “shutting down USAID.” Read more at NPR.

Why is the Trump administration targeting USAID?

In just two weeks, the Trump Administration has gutted USAID — the U.S. Agency for International Development — the government agency overseeing global efforts to improve health and education and decrease poverty and hunger.

The systematic dismantling of the 63-year-old agency is a stark contrast to its history of bipartisan support for funding programs like PEPFAR, created by President George W. Bush and credited with saving some 25 million lives.

As a senator in 2019, Marco Rubio, now secretary of state, hailed the agency’s “amazing achievements” in a post on Twitter (now X).

On a trip to El Salvador this week, Rubio took a different perspective, telling reporters: “We fund programs irrespective of whether it’s aligned or not aligned with the foreign policy. That’s ridiculous.” Read more at NPR.