Rubio orders firings of all USAID staffers overseas to move forward
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered U.S. embassies around the world to move ahead with a directive to fire all remaining staffers with the U.S. Agency for International Development. He said the State Department will take over USAID’s foreign assistance programs by Monday. A federal judge had temporarily blocked an executive order by President Donald Trump for mass firings at multiple federal agencies, including the State Department, and plaintiffs say Rubio’s reorganization plan appears to violate that court injunction. The Trump administration says the plan was already underway when the president issued the order, so there’s no possible violation. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday that Rubio’s directive “wasn’t a surprise.”
