The largest US government workers’ union and an association of foreign service workers sued the Trump administration on Thursday in an effort to reverse its aggressive dismantling of the US Agency for International Development.
The lawsuit, filed in Washington, DC federal court by the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Foreign Service Association, seeks an order blocking what it says are “unconstitutional and illegal actions” that have created a “global humanitarian crisis”.
President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are among the named defendants, but the text of the suit focuses extensively on actions, and statements on social media, by Elon Musk and his “department of government efficiency” initiative.
“The humanitarian consequences of defendants’ actions have already been catastrophic,” the plaintiffs said. “USAid provides life-saving food, medicine, and support to hundreds of thousands of people across the world. Without agency partners to implement this mission, US-led medical clinics, soup kitchens, refugee assistance programs, and countless other programs shuddered to an immediate halt.”
Among the actions called illegal are Trump’s order on 20 January, the day he was inaugurated, pausing all US foreign aid. That was followed by orders from the state department halting USAid projects around the world, agency computer systems going offline and staff abruptly laid off or placed on leave.
The White House and the departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The gutting of the agency has largely been overseen by Musk, the world’s richest man and a close Trump ally spearheading the president’s effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy and replace career civil servants with politically loyal appointees. On Monday, Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns, that he and his employees “spent the weekend feeding USAid into the wood chipper”. That statement was presented to the court as an example of the reckless destruction of an agency created by congressional statute.
As the Guardian has reported, Musk has also promoted a campaign of misinformation about the agency’s spending to tarnish its image, even sharing a hoax news report linked to a Russian influence operation that claimed, falsely, more than $40m was paid to Hollywood actors to visit Ukraine. Records from the USAid website that were used to debunk Musk’s false claim that the US planned to spend $50m on condoms for Gaza were removed along with almost the entire web history of the agency.
“Not a single one of defendants’ actions to dismantle USAid were taken pursuant to congressional authorization,” the lawsuit said. “And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency.”
The agency’s website now states that as of midnight on Friday “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 Trump administration plans to keep fewer than 300 employees, out of more than 10,000, sources told Reuters earlier on Thursday.
“The agency’s collapse has had disastrous humanitarian consequences,” Thursday’s lawsuit said, including shutting down efforts to fight malaria and HIV. “Already, 300 babies that would not have had HIV, now do. Thousands of girls and women will die from pregnancy and childbirth.”
Samantha Power, a former USAid administrator argued in a New York Times opinion article on Thursday that the damage to American prestige was a boon for its foreign adversaries.
“I am not surprised that the attacks are being cheered by Moscow and Beijing,” Power wrote. “They understand what those seeking to dismantle the agency are desperate to hide from the American people: USAid has become America’s superpower in a world defined by threats that cross borders and amid growing strategic competition.”
Trump’s foreign aid freeze and the shutdown of USAid have also crippled global efforts to relieve hunger, leaving tons of food worth $340m in limbo.
“We already see the shutdown’s cost,” Atul Gawande, a surgeon who led global health programs for USAid wrote on X. “Kids with drug-resistant TB, turned away from clinics, are not just dying – they’re spreading the disease. People around the world [with] HIV, denied their medicine, will soon start transmitting virus. The damage is global.”
Gawande added that one one veteran foreign service officer told him: “Our government is attacking us. This is worse than any dictatorship where I’ve worked.”
The lawsuit alleges that dissolving USAid, which was established as an independent agency in a 1998 law passed by Congress, is beyond Trump’s authority under the constitution and violates his duty to faithfully execute the nation’s laws.
It seeks a temporary and eventually permanent order from the court restoring USAid’s funding, reopening its offices and blocking further orders to dissolve it.
Article by:Source: Robert Mackey and agencies
