A federal judge has stopped President Donald Trump from putting thousands of employees on paid leave at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The notice came Friday from U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, the day that the Trump Administration had set for essentially dismantling much of the rogue agency by midnight.
The judge gave no rationale for overriding the president but said he would issue a written ruling later.
USAID has been exposed as an agency that is doling out money to terrorists and domestic violent groups that riot when Republicans are governing.
USAID funds propaganda for LGBTQ ideology and other focuses about which many Americans have been shocked to learn. Among the funding recipients are:
$7.9 million to teach Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid “binary-gendered language”
$4.5 million or more to “combat disinformation” in Kazakhstan
$1.5 million for “art for inclusion of people with disabilities”
$2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
$6 million to “transform digital spaces to reflect feminist democratic principles”
$2.1 million to help the BBC “value the diversity of Libyan society”
$2.5 million to promote “inclusion” in Vietnam
$16.8 million for a separate “inclusion” group in Vietnam
$5 million to EcoHealth Alliance, one of the top NGOs funding bat virus research at the Wuhan lab
$20 million for a group related to a key player in the Russiagate impeachment hoax
$1.1 million to an Armenian LGBT group
$1.2 million to help the African Methodist Episcopal Church Service and Development Agency build a state of the art 440-seat auditorium in Washington, D.C.
$1.3 million to Arab and Jewish photographers
$1.5 million to promote LGBT advocacy in Jamaica
The Trump order would have let 2,200 USAID worker stay home and get paid for not working. Federal employees receive full pay while on administrative leave, which is an authorized absence from work that doesn’t count against an employee’s leave balance.
As of 9:30 p.m. Eastern time, the USAID website still contained this notice:
“On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST).
“For USAID personnel currently posted outside the United States, the Agency, in coordination with missions and the Department of State, is currently preparing a plan, in accordance with all applicable requirements and laws, under which the Agency would arrange and pay for return travel to the United States within 30 days and provide for the termination of PSC and ISC contracts that are not determined to be essential. The Agency will consider case-by-case exceptions and return travel extensions based on personal or family hardship, mobility or safety concerns, or other reasons. For example, the Agency will consider exceptions based on the timing of dependents’ school term, personal or familial medical needs, pregnancy, and other reasons. Further guidance on how to request an exception will be forthcoming.
“Thank you for your service.
“FAQs
“1. If I am posted overseas and placed on administrative leave, am I required to return to the United States within the next 30 days?
“No. While USAID and the Department of State are preparing a plan under which USAID personnel posted overseas would be offered optional and fully reimbursed return travel to the United States within 30 days, personnel are not required to accept Agency-sponsored travel or to return to the United States within any specific deadline. Overseas USAID personnel retain the option to remain at their posts, even while placed on administrative leave and not working. Beyond 30 days, however, Agency funded and arranged return travel may not be available unless an individualized exception is sought and granted.”
The administrative state must go. Career bureaucrats and their legacy pet projects must go. The deep state must go. The swamp must go. Get it done Trump Administration. Return liberty and freedom to the citizens of this great nation. When democracy and democratic socialism dies, liberty prevails.
Trump is getting rid of Democrat corruption and graft, which is evident in all of these government agencies. That’s how the Democrats keep themselves fueled with money and power. Trump is dismantling this corruption with a little help from his friends. And it’s all being executed in Trump Time.
Let’s see now…. the money being laundered, pilfered, wasted and stolen was run through USAID from budget appropriations by congress. Its obviously incredulous to think congress was completely ignorant of the improprieties of this agency over the last 60-yrs. Congress has been populated and controlled by Republicans about as much as Democrats over that time. Do the Republicans get a free pass?
This blackrobe is a liar and Trump should just move ahead. An agency created by executive order can be shut down by executive order. And let’s not forget Reagon fired thousands of ATC’s when they refused to go back to work.
Jeanette–USAID was not created by executive order as you claimed. It was founded by Congress in 1961.
CRS Reports
‘https://crsreports.congress.gov › product › pdf › IF › IF10261 › 8
U.S. Agency for International Development: An Overview – CRS Reports
USAID was never established in statute; its status in relation to State has been largely shaped by executive order and could feasibly change without congressional action. Sustainability and Effectiveness. Congress remains interested in how USAID ensures that project efforts are maintained by local governments and organizations after
Nichols righteousness is now most certainly in question.
Trump should just ignore the (radical leftist activist) judge!
Hey, it worked for the usurper just fine — what’s good for the demented globalist goose is good for the orange anti-globalist gander.
The saving of money does not belong to the judiciary and is the judge thinks so the next day he would not have a courthouse. He could hold court from a tent.
They aren’t going to stop Trump. He’s pushing all the corruption & tax payer dollars that have been used as a “Slush” fund for the politicians into the light. He’s done more than any other President since taking office.
Time to get rid of a judge. Apparently everyone at usaid is corrupt. Isn’t it curious if you leave an executive in office to long 90% of the time they will become corrupt. That’s a fact. Time for term limits and let’s make a few examples of what you should not do in positions of power.
He stepped outside his jurisdiction – fire him.
Judge Carl Nichols should be investigated,
USAID started by JFK by executive order. It can be eliminated by executive order. Shut it down Mr President!!
Everette–You are incorrect. Congress founded USAID in 1961. It cannot be eliminated by EO.
SA,
You are incorrect. The Foreign Assistance Act was passed in 1961. JFK used the authority granted by that act to issue Executive Order 10973 that created USAID ‘https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-10973-administration-foreign-assistance-and-related-functions’
Since The Secretary of State and USAID are under the Executive Branch, it absolutely can be eliminated by Executive Order.
Boom!
That liberal judge will be nothing more than a speed bump within a few days.
Biden ignored the courts. Even the US Supreme Court. Many times. I’m doubting that Trump will stoop that low. This will shake out and USAID will disbanded. There is, and should not be, guaranteed employment for government workers, just as there is no guaranteed employment for the people who pay their salaries.
The judge is likely concerned about “process” as Lisa always talks about. That said, the authority to run the government rests with the President of the United States. It may take some time but the USAID reptiles will need to find honest employment.
Burn it all down
A last-ditch attempt to stop the loss of their funds!
Where does this judge live? We should protest his house. After all, Dems set precedence on that.
Worth a listen is Tucker Carlson’s 2/7/25 two hour interview with Mike Benz about USAID. You can listen for free to it on Tucker’s X page, also on Tucker’s Rumble page too.
JenL, really? We can listen to it for free? Are you saying the interview is so valuable that some people actually pay money to listen to it?
Minor speed bumps.
I hope Bondi is making good use of her rolodex as she is going to need a lot of help over the next four years – both offensively and defensively.
The judge is in on the skim, he doesn’t want to lose any money.
Reassign their work space to other agencies so that they have no place to work and reallocate the USAID budget to building the southern border wall or other domestic programs. The unfireable employees can work on that as laborers.
Judge is a Trump 45 nominee in 2019.
Trump is playing 3D chess with a lot of this stuff, literally begging for legal action against him. Birthright citizenship is probably the best example. As USAID was created by Executive Order, it can also be evaporated by EO, though somewhere along the line congress will have to defund it, which is problematic. Cheers –
This Judge is interfering in the lawful execution of a Presidential Executive Order and should be impeached! That would get these entrenched & corrupt judges attention.
This is the problem with the bureaucratic tyranny attempting to save itself, there are judges on the payroll.
From Federalist #78:
“WE PROCEED now to an examination of the judiciary department of the proposed government.
“Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them. The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgment.”
Emphases in the original.
When the good guys uncover Our Tax Dollars being spent on everything but Us, you have to expect a fight from those who benefit from this kind of fraud.
The ones making the most noise are the ones who benefitted the most and have to earn the money they have been stealing by creating chaos.
This money could have gone to Our Veterans and possibly solve half of our homeless issue.
Solutions to homeless issue are illusive because it is primarily a result of poor life choices. Two primary reasons for homelessness: 1) drugs and alcohol, and 2) failed education system. Both of these factors make people dysfunctional in life.
Usaid funded Soros’ D.A.
Project. The judge may be sympathetic.
You know, think this massive USAID expose, particularly the government-funded propaganda arm of it, might just explain the otherwise inexplicable continued existence of The Anchorage Daily News.
Has anyone else noticed how the ADN has become significantly more radical-left, strident and pro-deep-state propagandistic, even as their print edition, advertisers, and subscriptions have all fallen? For years, I have been wondering, “Just who is REALLY funding this?” Now, I suspect we know.
It is easy to pick out curious $$$$’s that likely have an explanation. What is not being covered is USAID pays farmers $2B each year, they don’t give the food away!
If a President can create USAID, Kennedy, then why can’t another President shut it down?
Another feral government criminal enterprise.
Perhaps EO written in peace times are arguable. Executive ORDERS written by a duly elected Commander in Chief during time of a declared war are military orders aren’t they? If Civil law has broken down what then? The military understands lawful orders.
We have a crapload of DEI judges, about 40% on the Supreme Court…!
Trump is correct on almost every point. He’s also putting things out there to facilitate adjudication!
I hope codification via legislation is forthcoming for almost all of his EO’s..!
Comments are closed.