Plain illegal

The BBC has been live reporting on Musk’s coup:

Democratic lawmakers have gathered outside USAID headquarters in Washington DC.

They are now speaking about how they believe shutting down USAID is a “clear and present danger” to US national security.

Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, says that closing this agency will only aid US adversaries and cites Russian President Vladimir Putin’s celebration of its closure.

The legislators also point out that it’s plain illegal.

Democrat[ic] lawmaker Gerry Connolly says “no-one elected Elon Musk to dismantle” USAID.

“Congress created this agency,” he says. “If you want to change it, you’ve got to change that law. It’s a matter for Congress to deal with, not an unelected billionaire oligarch named Elon Musk.”

Jamie Raskin, a frequent political foe of Donald Trump, is taking the fight directly to Elon Musk, who is leading efforts to dismantle USAID.

Musk leads the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) – which is not a government department, but a team within the Trump administration.

“Elon Musk, you didn’t create USAID, the United States Congress did for the American people. And just like Elon Musk did not create USAID, he doesn’t have the power to destroy it,” he says. “We don’t have a fourth branch of government called ‘Elon Musk,'” he also says.

He then notes that Musk’s SpaceX company has contracts with the defence department and says he “became the richest man in the world off our money”.

The richest and the evilest.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who came to the US as a refugee from Somalia and now represents parts of the state of Minnesota, shares firsthand perspective about USAID’s role.

Omar shares that she once lived in a refugee camp and that USAID assistance “kept my family fed and safe”. She said aid programmes “creates goodwill for the American people” because it reinforces the US’s soft power in the world.

Omar claims that the Trump administration’s moves made against USAID are “what the beginning of a dictatorship looks like”.

She’s not wrong.

Then Trump stepped up to let us know he has no clue what USAID does or doesn’t do.

He briefly touched upon the controversy regarding Elon Musk and DOGE, as well as on the future of USAID – which he described as fraudulent and claimed it is run by “lunatics”.

“They went totally crazy,” he said. “They were giving [money] to people that shouldn’t getting it, and to agencies and others that shouldn’t be getting it. They’re a tremendous fraud, but we’ll be doing a report.”

He did say, however, that he “loves” the concept of USAID. “The concept of it is good, but it’s all about the people,” he added.

He doesn’t know. If he knew, he would blab it. He doesn’t know: that’s why it’s all generalities. He does that a lot.

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