Why are thousands being culled from USAID, and who will be left standing?

Calling time out on foreign assistance was the only way the Trump administration could gain control of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the agency’s acting deputy administrator Peter Marocco has said — stating that after U.S. President Donald Trump issued his 90-day freeze on foreign aid, USAID staffers were “unwilling or unable” to provide his team with “basic compliance and oversight information.” “The placement of a substantial number of USAID personnel on paid administration leave was the only effective way to pause operations, faithfully implement the pause, and conduct a full and unimpeded audit of USAID’s operations,” wrote Marocco on Feb. 10, in response to a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by a pair of unions representing USAID staff. That declaration resurfaced on Monday night through another lawsuit, which was filed by the Personal Contractors Association to provide backup in a separate — but related — case. Four staff members have been placed on “investigative leave,” Marocco said in the court filing, alleging that those employees had committed “specific and serious acts of deceit, insubordination, and refusal to follow direct and lawful orders.” There were no specifics on these allegations and no mention of who was impacted. But the Trump administration made a similar assertion after slashing 58 senior executives late last month, with then-Acting Administrator Jason Gray stating those staffers had been attempting to “circumvent” Trump’s executive order. In his declaration, Marocco stated that he had made multiple requests for information about USAID’s operations, programs, and compliance with Trump’s directives — but “consistently” did not receive the information he had requested. One of the examples he references is that USAID staff were not able to identify which awards could be released under an exemption for lifesaving humanitarian assistance, even though most USAID staffers didn’t have access to the systems they needed to process such requests. Ever since U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the waivers, the process behind them has been alight with chaos, confusion, and fear — with one USAID employee telling Devex that they had been receiving conflicting instructions for which programs fell under the waivers. For weeks, staffers spoke about a back-and-forth that paralyzed the agency’s contracting and agreement officers, many of whom are personally liable for the awards’ value. “I am legally responsible for more than $40 million dollars,” said one of those staffers, speaking before they were placed on administrative leave this week. “I am terrified.” Marocco also said the agency’s senior staffers were “not able to explain whether the Agency’s payments system contained any controls to ensure compliance” with Trump’s directives; he also said it took more than two days for agency leadership to produce a list of overseas personnel. In addition, Marocco spoke about one staffer who “broke the chain of command” by attempting to obligate an award of nearly half a billion dollars — one that Marocco said was inconsistent with Trump’s priorities. “This lack of clear or timely information sharing caused grave concern about whether USAID was faithfully following the President’s and Secretary’s directives,” Marocco wrote, referring to Rubio, who is also serving as USAID’s acting administrator. Week after week, the Trump administration continued to sever staff from the agency. Days after the initial 58 senior staffers were placed on administrative leave, another 57 met the same fate, according to the court filing — with Marocco again stating those staffers had engaged in insubordination and deceit. That was refuted by a former senior official, who told Devex that it was “simply untrue” that USAID pays invoices without review. Before being sent for payment, the official said every invoice is reviewed, approved, or rejected by a USAID project officer familiar with the activity. But the culling continued unabated. Shortly after 57 staffers were pulled from their jobs, 606 employees were placed on leave; one day after that, another 1,416. By Feb. 7, a total of 2,140 direct hires had been cut from the agency, according to Marocco’s testimony. By Feb. 23, another 493 personal service contractors — a type of full-time employee brought to the agency under a different hiring mechanism — had been terminated, along with hundreds in another hiring category: individual support contractors. “There can’t be any movement on anything, because the people that are responsible for moving and obligating funds are gone,” said one former USAID consultant working in southern Africa. So who will remain at USAID? On Sunday night, USAID began slicing away nearly everyone left at what was once a 10,000-person agency. Thousands were placed on administrative leave, and thousands more — between 1,600 to 2,000 staff members — have been told they will be eliminated entirely. However, in the recent court filing, Marocco laid out which staff he expects to survive the Trump administration’s widespread culling, and which of these 611 employees have been deemed “essential” out of a previous workforce of over 10,000 people. “The process of selection included senior political and career leaders who carefully contemplated an essential staff level,” Marocco wrote. He also mentioned staff in the travel office, stating they were needed to help other USAID employees being recalled to the United States. Also on the list: Those with “subject matter expertise,” including staff from USAID’s regional bureaus; employees overseeing emergency humanitarian, food, and medical assistance, along with information, security, and legal issues; and the agency’s human resources team, even though USAID’s chief human resources officer — the head of that department — was previously severed from the agency after refusing to fire more staff. “This [reduction in force] is necessary to restructure USAID’s operations to better reflect Agency priorities and the foreign policy priorities of the United States,” read the message received by those terminated from the agency, which spread across the world Sunday night. Update, Feb. 25, 2025: This article has been updated to reflect the date of Peter Marocco’s court filing.