Trump has called USAID leaders radical lunatics

US President Donald Trump has said that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is run by "radical lunatics" and his administration is now getting rid of them. This was reported by The Hill newspaper on February 2.

Speaking to reporters, Trump said that his administration would first get the "crazies" out of USAID and then decide on the agency's future.

"USAID is run by radical lunatics, and we're taking them out, and then we'll make a decision," the publication quoted Trump as saying.

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On February 2, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested replacing USAID's name with "Self-Help Agency" if it resumes its activities, ironically calling it an agency for interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states.

On the same day, American billionaire Ilon Musk called USAID a criminal organization that should cease to exist, adding that the agency is "a snake's nest of radical left-wing Marxists who hate America."

Prior to that, on January 20, Trump's executive order suspending Washington's development aid to other countries for 90 days was published on the White House website. After, on January 25, Reuters reported that USAID froze programs to support foreign countries, including Ukraine, after a State Department dispatch approved by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported on February 1 that Scott Bessent, head of the U.S. Treasury Department, gave Musk's team access to the federal payment system to monitor and limit government spending. According to the newspaper's interlocutors, employees of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) were given access to the system, which processes data on payments worth more than $5 trillion a year; it already requires access to data from other agencies. The system stores the personal data of millions of citizens, which increases the risk of conflict of interest, the material noted.

On January 31, Reuters reported that Musk's aides, engaged in conducting work in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, closed access to all databases with personal information for government employees. The systems, according to the interlocutors of the publication, included databases containing information on dates of birth, addresses, salaries and length of employment of employees.