Marco Rubio.Interview

 Secretary of State Marco Rubio explains USAID.

Interviewer: So, you're now the head of USAID. The head of Doge Elon Musk called USAID a criminal organization and added that it is time for it to die. Do you agree with that?

Rubio: Let me walk you through the history of this agency. It was created as a way of doing humanitarian assistance in the world separate from the State Department at the time, but it’s said you have to take policy direction from the Secretary of State, the National Security Council, the White House, and all elements of government. They have basically evolved into an agency that believes that they're not even a U.S. government agency, that they are a global charity—that 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. They just don’t consider that they work for the U.S.; they just think they’re a global entity and that their master is the globe and not the United States. And that’s not what the statute says, and that’s not sustainable.

President put a pause on all foreign aid. We go to USAID, which is a big chunk of foreign aid—$40 billion or so. They’re completely uncooperative. They won’t tell you what the programs are; they refuse to answer questions; they try to push through payments even after the executive order—they were still trying to push money through the system.

Interviewer: Can it be reformed or does it need to die?

Rubio: Well, that was always the goal—was to reform it. But now we have rank insubordination; now we have basically an active effort where their basic attitude is, "We don’t work for anyone; we work for ourselves; no agency of government can tell us what to do." So, the President made me the acting Administrator, and we're going to go through the same process at USAID as we're going through now at the State Department. This is not about getting rid of foreign aid. There are things that we do through USAID that we should continue to do—that make sense. And we’ll have to decide: Is that better through the State Department or is that better through something—a reformed USAID? That’s the process we’re working through. There are things that are happening at USAID that we should not be involved in funding or that we have a lot of questions about. But they’re completely uncooperative, so we had no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control.