US Agency for International Development

President Trump signs executive order EO 14169 that places a 90-day halt on foreign aid, but it’s unclear to USAID staff if that applies to just new disbursements or existing grants.

An unnamed USAID official receives an angry late-night phone call from Peter Marocco, the newly appointed Director of Foreign Assistance at the US State Department, accusing employees of trying to subvert the President’s executive order imposing a 90-day pause on all foreign aid.

Senior USAID staff meet to explain to unnamed admininstration officials that the slow way in which USAID payments are processed through other agencies made it seem like funds allocated before the Trump executive order took effect were issued in defiance of the order. The administration officials seem confident they can explain to Peter Marocco.

The State Department issues a memo written by Peter Marocco and signed by Marco Rubio that not only puts a halt to future foreign aid but also insists on stop-work orders for ~6200 current grants and contracts at USAID.

Still convinced that USAID is deliberately committing insubordination against the executive order, Peter Marocco arrives at USAID with DOGE staffers Luke Farritor, Edward Coristine and Clayton Cromer to audit USAID’s accounts.

After the arrival of DOGE in the agency, senior staff are summoned to a meeting with Gavin Kliger and Luke Farritor. The DOGE team then presented agency leadership with a list of 57 employees involved with payments to be placed on immediate administrative leave and locked out of system access. The list reportedly made little sense and involved many staff not involved with payments.

DOGE presents their evidence that the employees should be placed on leave based on a single email analysis made by Luke Farritor and sent to other DOGE members. “I could be wrong. My numbers could be off.” he writes, but the conclusions are not to be questioned or checked.

After USAID’s director of labor relations pushed back against the push to suspend and fire the employees, he threatens to report it to the Office of Special Counsel and emails the employees saying he has no grounds to keep them on leave. As a result, Clayton Cromer commands security staff to forcibly remove him from the building.

Jeremy Lewin and Elon Musk order the acting head of USAID to comply with orders to lock every USAID employee worldwide out of all email and other communication systems. He refuses, stating that a sudden loss of access could get aid workers killed.

Luke Farritor and Gavin Kliger demand that all senior managers at USAID be stripped of their power to authorize payments - and that they alone become the only authorizers.

The acting head of the USAID, Jason Gray, is removed and replaced by Marco Rubio. Rubio then resigns and names Peter Marocco the Acting Deputy Administrator for the agency, giving him absolute power to force his demands.

THe USAID Director of Security and their deputy are placed on administrative leave for reportedly trying to prevent DOGE from accessing personnel files and classified data

The main USAID website and 6 other related websites are taken offline by DOGE.

DOGE staff arrive at USAID HQ hoping to work within the administrator’s suite at USAID, but their badges were not properly coded to provide access. The DOGE staff reportedly concluded this meant agency staff were keeping them out and could not be trusted.

Approximately 2000 USAID email accounts are deactivated without warning.

Elon Musk posts a series of tweets calling USAID evil and saying it is “time for it to die.”

All USAID staff receive and email that the building is indefinitely closed. It included Gavin Kliger’s email address at USAID.

Elon Musk tweets that he and President Trump are shutting down USAID, bragging he had fed the agency “into the wood chipper”

All USAID staff are informed by email they will soon be placed on indefinite administrative leave. The message is sent from the USAID email address of Gavin Kliger.

DOGE staff attempt to use their access to Treasury systems to stop payment for some USAID programs.

DOGE posts a tweet boasting about the removal of signage on the headquarters for USAID.

All USAID staff are placed on indefinite administrative leave, as a way of locking them out of systems and keeping them out of the way of DOGE’s activities at the agency.

Using their admin access, Gavin Kliger and Luke Farritor completely disable accounts for all other USAID staff on the agency’s system for creating and tracking payments. They now have absolute control.

The USAID Inspector General is fired by the White House after releasing a report critical of DOGE’s actions at the agency.

A USAID official under Trump testifies that “changes in the process by which payments can be made and approved by the Agency over the past weeks” in the payment system were causing certain allowance statements to be delayed.

Employees at USAID receive emails with a “Specific Notice of a RIF” effective in 60 days and signed by Peter Marocco. Many employees had already been placed on administrative leave.

In a ruling in J. Doe 1-26 v. Musk (D. Md), Judge Theodore D. Chuang finds that the decision to shut down USAID violated the Constitution in multiple ways and orders the agency must be reinstated.

Peter Marocco says that he will be succeeded at the agency by Jeremy Lewin and Kenneth Jackson, serving in deputy roles.

Almost all of the remaining 900 USAID employees are terminated by email from Jeremy Lewin with RIFs that will go into effect either in July or September.

After Rubio and the Trump administration promised to keep many lifesaving humanitarian grant programs active, almost all of them are slashed over the weekend. Some of the cut programs are then restored later. In one example, Peter Marocco ordered staff to comply with White House orders to stop all funds to Afghanistan. In other cases, Jeremy Lewin appears to have been involved with the alterations. USAID staff are not informed directly of these changes but find out from aid organizations whose funds have been affected.

CFPB leadership under Russell Vought uses the opening granted by the appeals court to attempt another massive RIF. Emailing from his USAID email account, Jeremy Lewin kicks off the process by providing Gavin Kliger and Adam Martinez with a letter to use for RIFs at the CFPB.

Gavin Kliger begins working with Adam Martinez of CFPB and Jeremy Lewin at USAID on the infrastructure to automate a massive RIF at the CFPB. This includes scripts to send termination letters to each employee.

Jeremy Lewin has a followup Teams call with CFPB chief legal counsel Mark Paoletta to plan for the upcoming massive RIF at the CFPB

Noah Peters at OPM denies the CFPB request made by Adam Martinez as well as Jeremy Lewin and Gavin Kliger to conduct an “emergency” RIF at the CFPB which would only give employees 30 days before their termination.

Under the direction of Marco Rubio, USAID officially ceases all operations for foreign aid. A study in the medical journal Lancet suggests that the end of USAID will lead to 14 million deaths worldwide by 2030, with 4.5 million of those being children under that age of 5.

Months after the destruction of USAID and folding in some of its staff and responsibilities into the US Department of State, the Trump administration incinerates 500 million tons of emergency food biscuits worth $800,000 rather than sending it to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where it could have fed 1.5 million children for a week because it was due to expire. Marco Rubio had promised the House Appropriations Committee that he would ensure food aid is distributed before expiration, but the government eliminated all aid to Afghanistan and refused to divert the food to other emergency crises. The cost of destroying the biscuits will be $130,000 making this nearly a $1 million dollar loss incurred by DOGE (not to mention lives that will be lost).

Congress passess a $9 billion recissions package that codifies DOGE cuts to foreign aid and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, despite concerns from Democrats and two Senate Republicans that its cuts are purposefully vague and undermine Congress’ role in the budget process.