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A2 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 25 February 2025
The Trump administration is putting USAID staffers on leave

worldwide and firing at least 1,600

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER The administration gave no
Associated Press explanation for the discrep-
WASHINGTON (AP) — ancy. USAID and the State
The Trump administration Department did not imme-
moved its fast-paced dis- diately respond to messag-
mantling of the U.S. Agen- es seeking comment.
cy for International Devel- Within hours of that notice,
opment toward what ap- individual staffers began
peared to be its final phas- reporting receiving the no-
es, telling all but a fraction tices of their upcoming dis-
of staffers worldwide that missal under the reduction
they were on leave as of in force. The Trump appoin-
Monday and notifying tee running USAID, deputy
at least 1,600 of the U.S.- administrator Pete Maroc-
based staffers they were co, has indicated he plans
being fired. The move was to keep about 600 mostly
the latest and one of the U.S.-based staffers on the
biggest steps in what Presi- job in the meantime, in
dent Donald Trump and part to arrange travel for
cost-cutting ally Elon Musk USAID staffers and families
say is their goal of gutting abroad.
the six-decade-old aid and The move escalates a
development agency in a monthlong push to disman-
broader campaign to slash Retired United States Agency for International Development worker Julie Hanson Swanson, left, tle the agency, which has
the size of the federal gov- join supporters of USAID workers outside the USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian affairs office in included closing its head-
ernment. Washington, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. Associated Press quarters in Washington and
The move comes after a shutting down thousands of
federal judge on Friday al- to keep temporarily block- ship and/or specially des- tices to staffers that it was aid and development pro-
lowed the administration to ing the government’s plan. ignated programs, will be beginning a firing process grams worldwide following
move forward with its plan “As of 11:59 p.m. EST on placed on administrative called reduction in force a freeze on all foreign as-
to pull thousands of USAID Sunday, February 23, 2025, leave globally,” according that would eliminate 2,000 sistance. A judge later tem-
staffers off the job in the all USAID direct hire per- to the notices sent to USAID U.S.-based jobs. A version porarily blocked the fund-
United States and around sonnel, with the exception workers that were viewed of the notice posted later ing freeze. Trump and Musk
the world. U.S. District Judge of designated personnel by The Associated Press. on USAID’s website put the contend that USAID’s work
Carl Nichols rejected pleas responsible for mission-criti- At the same time, the number of positions to be is wasteful and furthers a
in a lawsuit from employees cal functions, core leader- agency said in the no- eliminated lower, at 1,600. liberal agenda.q

New FBI Director Kash Patel is sworn in

as acting ATF chief, AP source says

if President Donald Trump compared to past direc- the most destructive op-
intends to nominate Patel tors and because of a vast eration in U.S. history.
for the ATF post, or what catalog of incendiary past And that is unelected bu-
the administration’s plans statements, which include reaucrats seizing our Con-
are for the agency that calling investigators who stitutional rights from you
has long been the target scrutinized Trump “govern- every single day and chip-
of Republicans. Justice De- ment gangsters.” ping away at your free-
partment and White House Gun safety groups that op- doms every single day.”
officials didn’t immediately posed Patel’s nomination The move to install Patel as
respond to a request for as FBI director highlighted ATF director follows Attor-
Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s new director of the FBI, comment. his support for Gun Owners ney General Pam Bondi’s
reacts as Alexis Wilkins watches during Patel’s ceremonial Patel will now oversee the of America, a gun rights firing of the bureau’s top
swearing-in, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, in the Indian Treaty Room at
the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House bureau of roughly 5,500 group that has called for lawyer last week.
campus in Washington. employees that’s respon- the ATF to be abolished. Bondi said Friday in a Fox
Associated Press sible for enforcing the na- In a social media post, the News interview that she
tion’s laws around firearms, group called Patel a “pa- fired chief counsel Pamela
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER to a person familiar with explosives and arson. triot who understands that Hicks because the agency
Associated Press the matter. Among other things, it’s in the Second Amendment was “targeting gun own-
WASHINGTON (AP) — New Patel was sworn in at ATF charge of licensing federal right of the People to keep ers.”
FBI Director Kash Patel was headquarters just days af- firearms dealers, tracing and bear arms SHALL NOT Hicks, who spent more
sworn in Monday as acting ter he became director guns used in crimes and BE INFRINGED.” than 20 years as a Justice
chief of the Bureau of Al- of the FBI, said the person analyzing intelligence in Patel spoke at Gun Own- Department lawyer, said
cohol, Tobacco, Firearms who spoke on the condi- shooting investigations. ers of America conference in a social media post that
and Explosives, taking the tion of anonymity because Democrats raised alarm last year, telling the crowd: being ATF chief counsel
helm of two separate and they were not authorized at Patel’s nomination for “My mission is your mission was the “highest honor” of
sprawling Justice Depart- to discuss the matter. FBI director over his lack of and spread it across Amer- her career.q
ment agencies, according It’s not immediately clear management experience ica and utilize it to defeat