Trump appoints Rubio as acting director of USAID after humanitarian agency taken over by State Department

US Secretary of State Secretary Marco Rubio has been appointed as Acting Administrator for USAID, tbe State Department has announced.

“The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has long strayed from its original mission of responsibly advancing American interests abroad, and it is now abundantly clear that significant portions of USAID funding are not aligned with the core national interests of the United States,” the Spokesperson’s Office said in a statement.

As an interim step toward gaining control and better understanding over the agency’s activity, President Donald J. Trump appointed Secretary Marco Rubio as Acting Administrator.

Secretary Rubio has also now notified Congress that a review of USAID’s foreign assistance activities is underway with an eye towards potential reorganization, the State Department said.

“As we evaluate USAID and ensure it is in alignment with an America First agenda and the efforts of the State Department, we will continue to protect the American people’s interests and ensure their tax dollars are not wasted,” it noted.

Speaking to the press in El Salvador, Rubio said the “functions of USAID” must align with US foreign policy and that it is “a completely unresponsive agency.”

Speaking to the press in El Salvador Monday, Rubio was asked about the arguments that USAID’s work is vital to national security and promoting US interests.

“There are things that USAID, that we do through USAID, that we should continue to do, and we will continue to do,” he said.

“This is not about ending the programs that USAID does, per se,” he said. “There are things that it does that are good and there are things that it does that we have strong questions about.”

Rubio claimed his “frustration with USAID” went back to his time in Congress. In 2017, the former senator defended the importance of foreign assistance.

“Foreign Aid is not charity. We must make sure it is well spent, but it is less than 1% of budget & critical to our national security,” he wrote in a post on X at the time.