Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that he is now serving as the acting director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), signaling a major shift in leadership at the agency. While speaking to reporters during a visit to Aeroman, a maintenance firm in San Luis Talpa, El Salvador, Rubio confirmed the development as part of his five-nation tour through Central America.

🚨 #BREAKING: President Trump has just appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as Acting Director of USAID

It was revealed this morning that USAID gave MILLIONS for “bat coronavirus research” in Wuhan in 2019, and then attempted to cover it up.

The corruption ends NOW. pic.twitter.com/PjYQp8hCmm

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 3, 2025

Rubio, who has long criticized USAID’s operations, expressed frustration over what he described as the agency’s lack of responsiveness. He argued that USAID is supposed to follow policy directives from the State Department but has often acted independently. “There are a lot of functions of USAID that are going to continue, that are going to be a part of American foreign policy, but it has to be aligned with American foreign policy,” he stated.

During his confirmation hearing, Rubio emphasized the importance of ensuring that “every dollar that we spend and every program that we fund will be aligned with the national interests of the United States, and USAID has a history of sort of ignoring that and deciding that they’re somehow a global charity separate from the national interest.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio just absolutely RIPPED the deep state slush fund known as USAID:

"I am the acting director of USAID."

"My frustrations with USAID goes back to my time in Congress. It's a completely unresponsive agency, it's supposed to respond to policy… pic.twitter.com/xKO8fmTYwS

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 3, 2025

“These are taxpayer dollars. And so I’m very troubled by these reports that they have been unwilling to cooperate with people who are asking simple questions about what does this program do, who gets the money, who are our contractors, who’s funded,” Rubio said. “And that sort of insubordination makes it impossible to conduct the sort of mature and serious review that I think foreign aid at large should have.”

“We’re spending taxpayer money here. These are not donor dollars,” he continued. “These are taxpayer dollars, and we owe the American people the assurances that every dollar that we are spending abroad is being spent on something that furthers our national interests. And so far, a lot of the people who work at USAID have simply refused to cooperate.”

When asked if he was officially leading the agency, Rubio confirmed, “I’m the acting director of USAID. I’ve delegated that authority to someone, but I stay in touch with him.”

“And again, our goal was to allow our foreign aid to the national interest,” Rubio added. “But if you go to mission after mission, and embassy after embassy around the world, you will often find that in many cases USAID is involved in programs that run counter to what we’re trying to do and our national strategy with that country or that region. That cannot continue. USAID is not an independent, non-governmental entity. It is an entity that spends taxpayer dollars, and it needs to spend it, as the statute says, in alignment with the policy directives that they get from the Secretary of State, the National Security Council and the president.”

“It’s been 20 or 30 years where people have tried to reform it. And it refuses to reform, it refuses to cooperate with people. When we were in Congress we couldn’t even get answers to basic questions about programs,” he said. “That will not continue.”

Meanwhile, USAID staffers were ordered to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters after Elon Musk announced that President Donald Trump had agreed with him to shut down the agency.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio—and the acting head of USAID—says there's "rank insubordination" at the organization.

"Their basic attitude is 'we don't work for anyone…no agency of government can tell us what to do'…They're completely uncooperative." pic.twitter.com/NBQgK5ggU3

— Julia 🇺🇸 (@Jules31415) February 4, 2025

In the weeks since Trump took office, thousands of USAID employees have been laid off, and numerous programs have been terminated. Reports from agency insiders indicate that over 600 additional employees were locked out of their computer systems overnight, while those still logged in received emails stating that “at the direction of Agency leadership” the headquarters building “will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.” The agency’s website is also no longer accessible.

Democratic lawmakers have pushed back against these actions, arguing that Trump does not have the constitutional authority to shut down USAID without congressional approval. They have also raised concerns over Musk’s involvement, particularly regarding his access to sensitive government information through his Trump-approved reviews of federal agencies and programs.

“This is a corrupt abuse of power that is going on,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said during a rally with agency supporters and fellow Democratic lawmakers in front of the USAID building. “As my colleague said, it’s not only a gift to our adversaries, but trying to shut down the Agency for International Development by executive order is plain illegal.”

In response to concerns about Musk’s role, Trump addressed the issue from the Oval Office on Monday.

“Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval. And we’ll give him the approval where appropriate. Where not appropriate, we won’t,” Trump said.