USAid

Federal Judge Orders ‘Very Limited’ Pause on Trump-Musk USAID Purge

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Tributes are placed beneath the covered seal of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., on February 7, 2025. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

“Frankly, there is zero harm to the government,” in a pause, said the Trump-appointed federal judge, who pressed administration lawyers to prove their claims of USAID fraud and corruption.

A federal judge said Friday that he would issue a “very limited” pause on the Trump administration’s midnight deadline for the U.S. Agency for International Development to place thousands of agency staff on leave.

Judge Carl Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia—an appointee of President Donald Trump—said he would approve a limited temporary restraining order preventing 2,200 USAID employees from being put on administrative leave at midnight. Nichols also said he would decide whether the 500 workers who have already been placed on leave will be reinstated.

“They should not put those 2,200 people on administrative leave tonight,” Nichols said, according to The Hill.

BREAKING: Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from placing 2,000+ USAID workers on leave as litigation continues.

— Democracy Docket (@democracydocket.com) 2025-02-07T21:58:55.706Z

Nichols’ move came in response to claims by two unions—the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) and American Federation of Government Employees—that their members would suffer “irreparable harm” as a result of Trump’s order. The unions said that the effort led by the Trump administration and unelected Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk constitutes an “ongoing, illegal scheme to gut” USAID.

“This is not something the president can unilaterally do,” Karla Gilbride, an attorney representing the unions, told Nichols during a Friday hearing.

Nichols said that “frankly, there is zero harm to the government” from a temporary pause. The judge pressed Trump administration attorneys to show proof of their claims of widespread fraud and corruption within USAID, which provides foreign aid and development assistance but also has a dubious history of funding subversion, drug trafficking, forced sterilization, Central American death squads, and torture during its 64-year existence.

Musk—whose DOGE has locked USAID employees out of internal systems and recalled thousands of personnel to the U.S. in recent days—has promoted conspiracy theories about the agency. Earlier this week, he posted on his X social media platform that it’s “time for it to die.”

Trump posted Friday on his Truth Social online platform: “USAID IS DRIVING THE RADICAL LEFT CRAZY, AND THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO ABOUT IT BECAUSE THE WAY IN WHICH THE MONEY HAS BEEN SPENT, SO MUCH OF IT FRAUDULENTLY, IS TOTALLY UNEXPLAINABLE. THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!”

Responding to Nichols’ reprieve, AFSA president Tom Yazdgerdi said in a statement that “this ruling is a crucial first step in halting a reckless assault on USAID and in supporting the dedicated professionals who serve our country.”

“We will continue to fight to protect the professionals who advance America’s values and leadership abroad,” Yazdgerdi added.

Lauren Bateman, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group, said that “tonight’s ruling proves temporary relief for the over 2,000 workers set to be put on leave by the Trump administration. It is a step forward in our fight against the unconstitutional and illegal attempt to break the back of USAID.”

“Trump and Musk’s attempt to disrupt aid around the world is unfathomably cruel, and the ruling tonight pumps the brakes on the destruction of a vital tool of humanitarian relief and American diplomacy,” Bateman added. “The Trump administration must abide by the ruling, or it risks catapulting the entire U.S. government into chaos.”

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
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Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
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How the world’s richest man laid waste the US government

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/04/trump-elon-musk-federal-government

Elon Musk at Trump’s inauguration. The president established a ‘department of government efficiency’ on the same day. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/AP

Elon Musk has achieved astonishing power in Trump’s administration – and spent the weekend wielding it

Since declaring his support for Donald Trump in July of last year and subsequently spending more than $250m on his re-election effort, Elon Musk has rapidly accumulated political influence and positioned himself at the heart of the new administration. Now as prominent as the president himself, Musk has begun to make use of that power, making decisions that could affect the health of millions of people, gaining access to highly sensitive personal data, and attacking anyone who opposes him. Musk, the world’s richest man and an unelected official, has achieved an astonishing level of power over the federal government.

Over the weekend, workers with Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) clashed with civil servants over demands for unfettered access to the computer systems of major US government agencies in a breakneck series of confrontations. When the dust settled, several top officials who opposed the takeover had been pushed out, and Musk’s allies had gained control.

Musk, with the backing of Trump, is now working to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAid) – the world’s largest single supplier of humanitarian aid. He bragged on Sunday about “feeding USAid into the wood chipper”. He has also targeted several other agencies in an aggressive attempt to purge and remake the federal government along ideological lines, while avoiding congressional or judicial oversight.

Many of Musk’s actions have taken place without forewarning or transparency, sowing chaos and confusion among the thousands of people employed at the agencies like USAid that he has gone after. Humanitarian organizations that rely on US funding have halted operations and laid off staff, while government workers have been locked out of their offices. He is operating Doge as an unofficial government department with no congressionally approved mandate while he technically holds the position of “special government employee”, which allows him to sidestep financial disclosures and a public vetting process.

…

Original article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/04/trump-elon-musk-federal-government

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
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Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.

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Ocasio-Cortez Denounces Musk-Led Attacks on Agencies as ‘A Plutocratic Coup’

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Original article by Eloise Goldsmith republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) delivers a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. on March 22, 2024.
 (Photo: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/YouTube Screengrab)

“It is important that we continue to signal to one another what we believe, because if we get quiet… then everyone around us is going to think that everyone has given up,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a recent livestream.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York took to social media on Sunday to denounce billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tasked with leading the new administration’s effort to slash federal spending and bureaucracy, and is currently working to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In response to reporting that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration placed two security chiefs at USAID on leave after their refusal to hand over classified materials to Musk’s “government-inspection teams,” per The Associated Press, Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday wrote: “This is a five alarm fire. The people elected Donald Trump to be president—not Elon Musk.”

“Having an unelected billionaire, with his own foreign debts and motives, raiding U.S. classified information is a grave threat to national security,” she continued.

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Her remarks were reposted by the venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, who wrote that Ocasio-Cortez is “wrong” and that the real five alarm fire will happen after Musk’s team reveals government waste and fraud.

Ocasio-Cortez hit back, casting doubt on the legitimacy of Musk’s efforts and writing: “This is a plutocratic coup. If you want the power, run for office and be chosen by the people.” The entire exchange took place on the Musk-owned social media platform X.

Musk, a billionaire and GOP megadonor, established himself as a major power player in Trump’s orbit even before Trump was inaugurated. In December, Musk sank a bipartisan spending bill, leaving Congress to scramble to come up with a new spending agreement to avert a government shutdown.

But since Trump’s return to the White House, Musk’s power has only grown as he’s moved swiftly to exert influence over levers of power within government. In a day one executive order, Trump established his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, by repurposing an existing entity, the U.S. Digital Service, an agency conceived to help improve the federal government’s services through better technology and design. Now called the U.S. DOGE Service, the move “will give centibillionaire Elon Musk and his allies seemingly unprecedented insight across the government, and access to troves of federal data,” according to WIRED.

Musk’s influence now extends to the General Services Administration as well as the Office of Personnel Management. Representatives from DOGE were also granted access to a sensitive Treasury Department payment system that contains the personal information of every American who receives tax refunds, Medicare, Social Security, and other payments from the government.

Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez has been one of the most vocal members of Congress speaking out about Musk and the Trump administration’s actions.

In a livestream on social media shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Ocasio-Cortez implored her audience not to take the Trump administration’s actions quietly.

“It is important that we continue to signal to one another what we believe, because if we get quiet… then everyone around us is going to think that everyone has given up,” said the New York Democrat.

“I want you all to know that you’re going to be hearing more from me,” she explained. “My responsibility is in trying to explain to you all what is going on as best as I can and leaning into our ability to collectively organize.”

Original article by Eloise Goldsmith republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
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Outcry After Biden Admin Pushed for Retraction of Northern Gaza Famine Report

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Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Five-year-old Misk Bilal al-Madhoun struggles to survive due to health problems such as cerebral palsy and body weakness as a result of malnutrition in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 18, 2024. (Photo: Hassan Jedi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“It sure looks like USAID is allowing political considerations—the Biden administration’s worry about funding Israel’s starvation strategy—to interfere,” said one human rights expert.

Veteran human rights expert Kenneth Roth said Thursday that the withdrawal of a report on imminent famine in northern Gaza negates “the whole point” of the office that produced the analysis: “to have a group of experts make assessments about imminent famine that are untainted by political considerations.”

The decision by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) to retract its December 23 alert on the rapidly spiraling starvation crisis in the northern part of the besieged enclave came after the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, publicly criticized the report.

FEWS NET, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said in its report that Israel’s “near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies” for nearly 80 days has made it “highly likely that the food consumption and acute malnutrition thresholds for famine… have now been surpassed in North Gaza Governorate.”

The report referenced the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the United Nations-backed assessment that classifies famine as “phase 5” and declares famine in a region once more than 30% of children under age five are acutely malnourished, more than two people per 10,000 die each day from starvation, or once 20% of households face an extreme lack of food.

On Thursday, a note on the group’s website said the “December 23 Alert is under further review and is expected to be re-released with updated data and analysis in January.”

FEWS NET is hardly the first group to warn of impending famine in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have been carrying out a ground offensive since early October and where nearly all humanitarian aid has been cut off for thousands of Palestinians who are trapped in the region.

Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, said the area was facing a “full-blown famine” in May, and independent United Nations experts made a similar assessment in July.

But the FEWS NET report drew criticism from Lew, who said the analysis relied on “outdated and inaccurate” data pertaining to how many people are currently in northern Gaza.

The report was based on a population of 65,000-75,000 people in northern Gaza, said Lew, but Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) “estimates the population in this area is between 5,000 and 9,000,” said Lew, while the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) “estimates the population is between 10,000 and 15,000.”

“At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this,” said Lew.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations was among those who said Lew appeared to reject the report by boasting “about the fact that [northern Gaza] has been successfully ethnically cleansed of its native population.”

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Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Lew’s “quibbling over the number of people desperate for food seems a politicized diversion from the fact that the Israeli government is blocking virtually all food from getting in.”

“The Biden administration seems to be closing its eyes to that reality, but putting its head in the sand won’t feed anyone,” he told the Associated Press.

The Biden White House has been a vehement supporter of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since October 2023, insisting that the country is only defending itself following a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel—even as the death toll has passed 45,000 and as numerous reports have shown that Israel is waging attacks that officials know will kill hundreds of civilians.

In October the administration said it was giving Israel a month to ensure sufficient humanitarian aid was getting to Palestinians and threatened to cut off military aid, but when the deadline passed, no changes to U.S. political and military support were made.

The U.S. is prohibited from supplying weapons to countries that are blocking U.S. humanitarian aid under its own laws, including Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act.”

Roth suggested that by pushing for the retraction of the FEWS NET report, USAID was acting on its vested interest in denying that Israel is starving Palestinians.

“It sure looks like USAID is allowing political considerations—the Biden administration’s worry about funding Israel’s starvation strategy—to interfere” with the report, Roth told the AP.

Scott Paul, a senior manager at Oxfam America, told the outlet that Lew “leveraged his political power to undermine the work of this expert agency.”

Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingOutcry After Biden Admin Pushed for Retraction of Northern Gaza Famine Report

What a Leaked US Cable Says About Israel’s Looming Assault on Rafah

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Original article by OLIVIA ROSANE republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

A man looks for survivors amid the debris of destroyed houses in the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 22, 2024. 
(Photo: Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)

An invasion would have “catastrophic humanitarian consequences, including mass civilian casualties, extensive population displacement, and the collapse of the existing humanitarian response,” the cable warned.

An Israeli invasion of Rafah would have “catastrophic” consequences for the 1.5 million civilians sheltering in the southern Gazan city, a U.S. diplomatic cable has warned.

The cable, written by members of the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), was sent from Jerusalem to the State Department in Washington, D.C. on Monday and reported by The Intercept on Tuesday.

“A potential escalation of military operations in within Southern Gaza’s Rafah Governorate could result in catastrophic humanitarian consequences, including mass civilian casualties, extensive population displacement, and the collapse of the existing humanitarian response, multiple relief actors have warned USAID’s Levant Disaster Assistance Response Team,” the cable reads.

“A ‘military incursion’ into a tent city of unarmed civilians is a horrifying, psychopathic action.”

It comes amid increased protests against a potential Rafah invasion and international calls for a cease-fire in an attack that the International Court of Justice has deemed a plausible genocide. Israel’s assault on Gaza has already killed more than 30,000 people, displaced at least 85% of the population, and induced a famine that is killing children through starvation and dehydration.

The Biden administration faces mounting domestic pressure to push for an end to the onslaught. However, the cable was publicized the same day that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Israeli War Cabinet Member Benny Gantz and did not categorically reject a Rafah invasion. Instead, Blinken reportedly “underscored the need for a credible and implementable humanitarian plan prior to any major military operation in Rafah, given the risks to civilians.”

Yet the stark language of the cable belies the possibility of such a plan.

“At present, there appear to be no viable evacuation options for the 1.5 million in Rafah,” the cable said.

The Rafah Governorate, which it said was comparable in size to Syracuse, New York, has seen its population increase by more than sevenfold since Israel began its assault on Gaza following Hamas’ deadly incursion into Southern Israel on October 7. The Israeli military ordered civilians to flee southward for safety, and now those who heeded those calls have nowhere else to go.

“A large portion of those residing in Rafah, including elderly populations, exhausted IDPs [internally displaced persons], and those with reduced mobility, would likely remain in the governorate during the potential military operation due to lack of viable alternatives, heightening the risk of mass casualties,” the cable said.

It described the situation in Rafah as already dire. Many people entering Rafah from the north had their belongings seized by the Israel Defense Forces and then had to spend months trying to find basic items like blankets. The services that do exist are overwhelmed.

“The impact of hostilities has stretched the capacity of Gaza’s health system beyond its limit,” the cable said.

In addition, Israel been ramping up a bombing campaign against Rafah, leading to “escalating panic and increased breakdown of social order,” the cable said.

Reacting to the cable, journalist Heidi Moore said on social media that its assessment of a potential Rafah invasion as “catastrophic” was “the only conclusion.”

“A ‘military incursion’ into a tent city of unarmed civilians is a horrifying, psychopathic action,” Moore added.

It is unclear how much influence the cable will have with the administration. In addition to the State Department, copies of it were also sent to the National Security Council, secretary of defense, and the CIA.

USAID declined The Intercept‘s request for comment, but pointed to previous remarks of Administrator Samantha Power, who said in late February that the U.S. could not support a Rafah campaign without a “credible plan to protect civilians” and that it had “seen no credible plan.”

Original article by OLIVIA ROSANE republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingWhat a Leaked US Cable Says About Israel’s Looming Assault on Rafah