DOGE Track

Peter Marocco

Political

A veteran of the first Trump administration, he was reportedly placed on administrative leave in 2020 for establishing a pattern in a division of USAID that he ran where he would unilaterally freeze or revoke grants that he felt didn’t reflect administration priorities. When employees spoke up about it, he would then accuse them of insubordination and attempt to get them suspended or fired. He sounds like a really nice guy, so it’s probably not surprising that placing him in charge of USAID this year led to the rapid destruction of the agency. And it’s also possibly why he himself was reportedly ousted from the State Department after the damage was complete. It would be comically ironic, if it didn’t mean the loss of hundreds of valuable people in USAID and hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide.

Positions

Position Notes
State
Sources
State 1/20/25-4/13/25 Director of Foreign Assistance ($195,200)
fired 4/13/25
USAID
Source
USAID 2/01/25-3/19/25
resigned from agency 3/19/25
IAF
Source
IAF 2/28/25-4/04/25 President/CEO «Assuming removed with Sara Aviel reinstatement by court order»
removed 4/04/25
USADF
Source
USADF 2/28/25 Acting Chair of the Board

Events

Date Event
1/23/25
Source
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.
 Peter Marocco
1/24/25
Source
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.
1/27/25
Source
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.
1/30/25
Source
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.
2/01/25
Source
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.
2/20/25
Source
Trump political appointees and DOGE staffers hold an impromptu celebration of their work on the one-month anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, complete with a celebratory cake, in the agency’s new temporary offices where senior staff are isolated from the remaining career employees by a “moat” of 90 empty desks
2/23/25
Source
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.
2/28/25
Source
White House Deputy Trent Morse sends an email to the office director at the IAF which states that Peter Marocco has been appointed the acting Chairman for the agency.
2/28/25
Source
Peter Marocco convenes an emergency board meeting (where the emergency is that Trump issued an executive order), asserting that means he can avoid the mandatory 1-week notification to the board of the agency. In attendance at the meeting are Ethan Shaotran and Nate Cavanaugh. This is where he declares himself the new President and Acting CIO of the IAF.
3/01/25
Source
Reviewing the spreadsheet, Jeremy Lewin orders that 151 additional awards must be terminated, writing that he would “have strong objections to these awards being turned on.” Emailing later at 11:30pm, Peter Marocco also states the reactivations were far too broad and indicating more programs to be terminated
3/04/25
Source
Peter Marocco sends emails to all grantees terminating all of IAF’s existing grants except for a single one that was almost completely disbursed by that point.
3/04/25
Source
USADF CFO Mathieu Zahui receives an email from Nate Cavanaugh informing him that Peter Marocco would be coming to the office the following day in his declared capacity as Chairman of the Board.
3/04/25
Source
Peter Marocco announces himself to staff at IAF as President/CEO. He then begins immediately dismantling all contracts and places all staff on administrative leave for 30 days to prevent them from interfering or monitoring DOGE’s actions at the agency.
3/19/25
Source
Peter Marocco says that he will be succeeded at the agency by Jeremy Lewin and Kenneth Jackson, serving in deputy roles.
4/08/25
Source
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.