Trump Administration To Cut USAID Staff To Fewer Than 300 Staffers: Reports

The Trump administration will slash more than 10,000 jobs at the U.S. Agency for International Development, leaving about 290 staffers at the global humanitarian agency, according to multiple reports.

USAID, which has been in the cross hairs of Elon Musk, whom President Donald Trump named to head the Department of Government Efficiency, also learned Thursday that about 800 awards and contracts it administered were being canceled, the New York Times reported.

USAID officials, who are asking for less harsh cuts, have submitted longer lists to the State Department of personnel they deem are necessary to carry out the agency's work worldwide, the report said.

The development comes after nearly all of its direct hires, including a list of Foreign Service officers, will be placed on indefinite administrative leave.

Foreign Service officers will have 30 days to return to the United States, according to the Associated Press.

On Thursday, labor organizations representing USAID employees sued the Trump administration in a last-ditch effort to halt the firings, arguing the administration's actions are unconstitutional and will create a "global humanitarian crisis."

"Not a single one of defendants' actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization," the lawsuit states. "And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting administrator of USAID, called the agency a "global charity."

"They take the taxpayer money and they spend it as a global charity irrespective of whether it is in the national interest or not in the national interest," he told Fox News in an interview on Sunday.

Rubio, a former Republican senator from Florida, said the complaints from embassies around the world is that USAID "is not only not cooperative; they undermine the work that we're doing in that country; they are supporting programs that upset the host government for whom we're trying to work with on a broader scale."

A notice on USAID's website stated that as of 11:59 p.m. Friday, all "direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs."

"Thank you for your service," it said.