President Donald J. Trump will order nearly all federal employees with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on administrative leave this Friday. The move comes as the international aid agency faces increasing scrutiny over its disbursement of taxpayer dollars and allegations it funds nongovernmental organizations and other groups actively undermining American interests abroad.

According to a notice on the USAID website, the measure will affect all “direct hire personnel” from February 7 at 11:59 PM. However, those responsible for essential operations, leadership roles, and select programs will continue their duties. Employees not on leave will be informed by Thursday at 3:00 PM.

Last week, the Trump White House announced a freeze on all USAID disbursements after Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) found concerning irregularities, including U.S. taxpayer dollars being given to organizations associated with foreign terrorist groups. Subsequently, President Trump named Secretary of State Marco Rubio as acting director of the agency—a move believed to be a precursor to the USAID shutdown, with any critical programs being subsumed into the State Department instead.

“They have basically evolved into an agency that believes that they’re not even a U.S. government agency, that… they’re a global charity, that they take the taxpayer money, and they spend it as a global charity irrespective of whether it is in the national interest or not in the national interest,” Sec. Rubio said in an interview earlier this week. He continued, stating while initially it was hoped USAID could be reformed, it appears that is no longer possible: “Now we have basically an active effort—their basic attitude is, ‘We don’t work for anyone, we work for ourselves, no agency of government can tell us what to do.’”

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