The website of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) went offline Saturday evening amid reports that the Trump administration was preparing to curtail USAID’s independence by placing it under the direct oversight of the State Department.
An error message on USAID’s website read: “This site can’t be reached Check if there is a typo in www.usaid.gov. DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN.”
USAID’s X account was also taken offline.
Two sources familiar with the transition told Reuters that a major overhaul is expected in how Washington allocates US foreign aid, with USAID losing its independence and most likely coming under the control of the State Department.
By late Saturday, a new ‘lite’ page for USAID appeared on the State Department’s website.
“Trump’s been purging and intimidating USAID employees. Now there’s a rumor he’ll dissolve USAID as an independent agency,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X on Friday.
Trump has made it very clear to Democrats and their Deep State counterparts that flooding taxpayer dollars into shady NGOs would be coming to an end under his ‘America First’ agenda.