Trump targets USAID as Marco Rubio becomes acting head of the embattled agency

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he is now the acting director the U.S. Agency for International Development, following the Trump administration's sudden freeze on federal foreign spending.

Speaking to reporters in El Salvador on Monday, Rubio accused the agency of not cooperating with requests for information on how it spent taxpayer dollars.

Earlier on Monday, Elon Musk announced that his Department of Government Efficiency was in the process of "shutting down USAID."

USAID employees woke up to an email telling them the headquarters in Washington, D.C., would be closed for the day and that they should work from home.

Some Democratic members of Congress are speaking out against the Trump administration's efforts to halt most of USAID's work.

"This is an entity that was created through federal statute, codified through federal statute, and something that cannot be changed, cannot be removed except through actions of Congress," Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey said, as demonstrators gathered outside USAID headquarters.

Founded in 1961, the agency manages billions of dollars in federal humanitarian assistance around the world. But its work was been thrown into upheaval in the last week, as the Trump administration halted nearly all its programs.

While Rubio said he is officially the acting director of USAID, he said he has "delegated that authority to someone, but I stay in touch with him," without naming the person he is delegating to.

He said there are things that USAID does "that we should continue to do and we will continue to do. But everything they do has to be in alignment with the national interest and the foreign policy of the United States."

This is a developing story that will likely be updated.

NPR's Fatma Tanis, Hansi Lo Wang and Shannon Bond contributed reporting.