The magazine praises Musk's role in "stopping USAID"
On its front page, Time magazine depicted Elon Musk sitting in an office resembling that of US President Donald Trump in the White House. The magazine wrote in its analysis the story of the heated conflict between Musk and USAID, which he succeeded in stopping. It said that the confrontation between the two parties was not ordinary. On the first of February, a handful of men working for Musk came to the USAID, a few blocks from the White House, demanding full access to its headquarters.
The agency's employees refused and did not point any weapons, did not throw any punches, and no police intervened. But in these early days of the Trump administration, perhaps no other scene revealed more clearly the forces reshaping America's government.
On one side stood an institution with a history spanning 64 years and a budget of $35 billion. On the other side stood Musk's political squad. They identified themselves as members of the Department of Government Efficiency, a group of temporary employees with no charter, no website, and no clear legal authority but a powerful administration whose power derives from Musk, the richest person on Earth, who has been tasked with dismantling vast swaths of the federal bureaucracy, slashing budgets, gutting the civil service, and stripping independent agencies of the ability to thwart the president’s goals.
USAID’s leadership allowed Musk’s team, a group of his young, fervent followers, to spend several days inside their headquarters in late January. Musk’s employees walked the halls with papers in hand, inspected offices, and questioned managers, according to several USAID officials who described the events to TIME.
But as the weekend rolled around, their demands, including access to sensitive facilities designed to store classified information, went beyond what the agency’s security chiefs could tolerate.
Musk’s men threatened to call the U.S. Marshals and evacuate the building. They also reported the problem to Musk.
Shortly after, Musk wrote to his 215 million followers on his social media platform, “USAID is a criminal organization. It’s time for it to die.” The reason for Musk’s campaign remained unclear.
But whatever the reason, by the next morning, the agency, which allegedly spends tens of billions of dollars a year around the world, combating famine and disease and providing clean water to millions of people, had largely ceased operations.
Within a week, nearly all of its employees were furloughed, and its offices around the world were closed.
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