Elon Musk is facing intense criticism in the US after a former senior USAID official alleged in an interview published on Saturday 1 June that the tech billionaire's role in dismantling the aid agency under Donald Trump's administration contributed to the suffering and deaths of 'hundreds of thousands' of people across more than 100 countries. The accusations, centred on what one critic called Elon Musk's USAID 'wood chipper', were laid out by ex staffer Nicholas Enrich in a lengthy interview with Current Affairs.
USAID, the United States Agency for International Development, has for decades overseen American foreign aid and development programmes, from vaccination drives to HIV and Ebola prevention. During Trump's presidency, Musk was appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a cost cutting office within the administration. According to Enrich, it was from that position that Musk drove a rapid and destructive restructuring of USAID that he believes had lethal consequences across the developing world.
