Trump administration puts thousands of workers on leave, cutting U.S. jobs at foreign aid agency [Video]

The Trump administration said Sunday that it was placing all but a fraction of staffers at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on leave worldwide and eliminating at least 1,600 U.S.-based jobs.

It was the latest and one of the biggest steps yet toward what President Donald Trump and cost-cutting ally Elon Musk say is their goal of gutting the six-decade-old aid and development agency in a broader campaign to slash the size of the federal government.

The move comes after a federal judge on Friday allowed the administration to move forward with its plan to pull thousands of USAID workers off the job in the United States and around the world. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, rejected pleas in a lawsuit from employees to keep temporarily blocking the government’s plan.

“As of 11:59 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAID direct hire personnel, …