Musk mocked the media left without USAID funding

US billionaire, entrepreneur and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Ilon Musk has mocked the "independent" media in Russia and Ukraine, which have been left without funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

"'Independent media,' I'm busting out laughing," he wrote on his social network X (formerly Twitter) on Feb. 9.

Musk attached a picture to the post, which says that Russian and Ukrainian independent media have lost funding due to the USAID freeze.

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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. Later, on January 25, Reuters reported that USAID froze programs to support foreign countries, including Ukraine, following a State Department dispatch approved by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Musk later announced on Feb. 3 that he had launched a process to liquidate USAID. The billionaire noted that this agency is not recoverable, it should be closed. At the same time, Trump called the heads of the agency radical madmen.

Bloomberg reported on February 5 that Musk's team gained access to the room where secret USAID documents are stored. In addition, more than 100 employees of the agency were sent on administrative leave. Later, on February 7, it became known that a court in the United States blocked Trump's decision to recall USAID employees from their positions and send them on leave until February 14.