Two top security officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development have been placed on administrative leave, the latest in a series of suspensions and layoffs at the American government's primary humanitarian aid agency, APA reports citing CBS News.
President Trump is considering dramatic changes to USAID, as advisers examine where there's overlap with other agencies or where its spending runs counter to the president's stances.
USAID Director for Security John Vorhees and Deputy Director for Security Brian McGill were put on leave Saturday night, two sources confirmed to CBS News.
Multiple sources confirmed to CBS News that the two top security officials were fired for attempting to block the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) access to classified material in restricted areas. The Associated Press first reported the reason for the firing.
DOGE spokesperson Katie Miller did not respond to requests for comment, but did repost the AP article on X with the comment, "No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances."
Matt Hopson, who was recently appointed USAID chief of staff by Mr. Trump, resigned Sunday, according to two current USAID staffers. There was no mass email about it. The staffers said it happened after his involvement, alongside the two other security staffers, in blocking DOGE officials from getting access over the weekend.
Vice President JD Vance is in charge of figuring out next steps for USAID reform, per one person familiar with Trump's decision. A spokesperson for Vance declined to comment.
Mr. Trump told reporters Sunday night upon returning to Washington, D.C., from Palm Beach, Florida, that USAID has been run by "a bunch of radical lunatics."
"We're getting them out," he said, "and then we'll make a decision."
No executive order was imminent — officials are still in the planning phase, sources said last week. But the president is interested in reforming the agency, they said.
One option is to possibly fold it into the State Department, but other possibilities are on the table, two sources told CBS News.
Republican Rep. Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which provides oversight of the State Department, said Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that USAID is "likely going to be rolled more closely under Secretary Rubio." USAID already reports to the Secretary of State but the Trump administration is looking at ways to combine it or fold it into the State Department.
On Monday, USAID employees were instructed to stay out of headquarters, and staffers who came by the agency's annex to get their belongings found that turnstiles had been turned off and they were escorted from the building.
Mast did not detail what specific changes will be made but indicated that he intends to initiate changes via Congress as well. USAID was established in 1961 by an act of Congress.
"I would be absolutely for, if that's the path we go down, removing USAID as a separate department, and having it fall under whether the other parts of the United States, Department of State, because of its failure," Mast claimed on "Face the Nation."
CBS previously reported that the person heading up the efforts to reshape USAID is Pete Marocco, a former deputy assistant secretary of African Affairs at the Pentagon. Marocco is now serving in a senior directing role in the State Department's Foreign Assistance Office, which oversees foreign assistance programs administered by the State Department and USAID.
Freezing foreign aid was a Trump campaign promise to only support efforts that serve America's national security interest and to cut costs. However, foreign aid makes up just 1% of the federal budget.
U.S. foreign aid agencies almost never directly implement aid programs, choosing to partner with non-governmental organizations, public international organizations, and sometimes foreign governments to carry them out. The Trump administration's 90-day freeze on almost all foreign aid means that these contractors are not being paid for work already in progress.
With no indication that the aid freeze will be lifted soon, contractors are furloughing and/or terminating employees en masse.
An aid worker with contracts around the world told CBS that organizations are expecting to face lawsuits in foreign countries from governments who consider them in breach.
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