GOP Sen. Breaks Ranks to Blast Musk’s ‘Callous’ USAID Cuts

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski has had enough of President Donald Trump’s “special government employee,” Elon Musk, and his carefree dismantling of the federal workforce via his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE.) Murkowski took to X on Thursday to diss the social media platform’s owner and explain how DOGE is harming the U.S. and the world. “This week, I met with some Alaskan USAID employees,” she wrote. “They not only informed me of the confusing and callous handling of personnel matters by OPM and DOGE, but they also painted an incredibly troubling picture of what the world looks like without humanitarian assistance from the United States.” In the last few months DOGE has successfully dismantled the U.S. foreign aid agency USAID and the Department of Education, not to mention fired thousands of federal employees under the guise of long-term cost-cutting benefits. Murkowski continued: “Although I support measures to find inefficiencies within the agency, USAID’s mission to keep people healthy and safe in even the most remote corners of the world should not be eliminated.” Musk’s demolition of the federal system has spooked the U.S. economy. According to Reuters on Thursday, the number of announced layoffs in the United States has “jumped to levels not seen since the last two recessions.”