The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced Tuesday that it will place all non-essential direct-hire staffers around the world on leave as the Trump administration cracks down on government waste.

“On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs,” the agency said in a notice posted on its website.

USAID noted that personnel deemed essential will be notified by agency leadership by Thursday, and that travel will be arranged for all other direct-hires to return to the US within 30 days.

“For USAID personnel currently posted outside the United States, the Agency, in coordination with missions and the Department of State, is currently preparing a plan, in accordance with all applicable requirements and laws, under which the Agency would arrange and pay for return travel to the United States within 30 days and provide for the termination of PSC and ISC contracts that are not determined to be essential,” the notice said.  

“The Agency will consider case-by-case exceptions and return travel extensions based on personal or family hardship, mobility or safety concerns, or other reasons,” it continued.

“Thank you for your service,” the memo concluded.

The move follows the shutdown of numerous USAID programs and the layoff of thousands of workers as a result of President Trump’s 90-day pause on US foreign development assistance.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by billionaire Elon Musk, had taken USAID’s website offline over the weekend as it worked to roll back the agency.

Trump, 78, charged Sunday night that the USAID had “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out.”

Musk, 53 later said during an X Spaces event that the president had “agreed” with him that DOGE “should shut it down.”

The Tesla and SpaceX founder further argued that the agency was “beyond repair.”

Then, on Monday, USAID workers were told to stay out of the agency’s DC headquarters as Musk’s team worked to reorganize the agency under the State Department, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio serving as acting director.

During the DOGE takeover, two top USAID security officials tried to stop Musk’s team from gaining access to secure parts of the building leading to a confrontation between the security officials and members of the US Marshals Service, according to Reuters.

The US is the largest funder of foreign aid internationally, including through the USAID, and Republicans have routinely slammed the agency’s work, particularly for having been wasteful of taxpayers’ money and unnecessarily promoting a left-wing agenda abroad.

USAID, created by former President John F. Kennedy via executive order in 1961, had a $43.4 billion budget in fiscal year 2023.

Foreign governance assistance ($16.8 billion) accounted for most of the agency’s spending,  followed by humanitarian aid ($10.5 billion), health care initiatives ($7 billion), administrative efforts ($3.5 billion) and agriculture, education and infrastructure projects ($3.1 billion), according to a Congressional Research Service report issued in January.