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A USAID and American flag outside of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) headquarters in Washington, DC, on Feb. 3, 2025. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
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Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
The State Department has started the process to withdraw all United States Agency for International Development personnel stationed overseas by this weekend, according to three sources with knowledge of internal planning.
"We are being tasked to assist the department in recalling USAID employees to the United States by Saturday," Seth Green, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Global Operations, wrote in an email to State Department staff on Tuesday afternoon.
It continued: "I understand the feasibility concerns as well as the emotional toll this will take on those impacted as well as the team assisting. We've been asked to staff a 24/7 Coordination Support Team in the Ops Center's Taskforce space beginning immediately."
The email went on to say another State Department official would reach out to seek volunteers and coordinate scheduling.
The plan to recall overseas staff was described to NPR by current and former federal government officials who were not authorized to speak publicly and feared retribution.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The order is the latest move made by the Trump administration in the last week to try to dismantle USAID.
On late Monday night, a memo went out to State Department employees asking that overseas missions provide the number of USAID employees and dependent family members at their locations.
About two-thirds of USAID's 10,000 employees serve overseas in more than 60 country and regional missions, according to a January 2025 report by the Congressional Research Service.
The abrupt recall means employees would have just days to figure out where to go, how to arrange pet care, take children out of school, allow their spouses to make arrangements, and plan for their belongings to be sent behind them, for example. Meanwhile, withdrawing over a thousand foreign service officers and their families will likely be extremely costly, multiple diplomatic sources tell NPR.
"It will be logistically challenging, tremendously expensive and undignified," said one USAID employee who was not authorized to speak publicly. "Many folks have kids in school, for example."
"The last time we tried to do this was during COVID, and it was impossible to do that quickly," said Susan Reichle, a retired senior USAID official.
In countries where USAID pays for the operational cost of the U.S. mission, such as Egypt and South Africa, the Trump administration's funding freeze is already preventing use of USAID funds. That has led employees both within and outside USAID to fear that soon they'll lose access to electricity, communications, security backups, trash pickups, medical evacuations, and other services.
President Trump delegated the cost-cutting team called DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, and its leader Elon Musk to review USAID programs and downsize the agency, potentially moving it inside the State Department. Trump has accused the agency, which distributes billions of dollars in humanitarian aid worldwide, of corruption and fraud. He gave a list of global outreach programs he disagreed with as illustrations of those claims, without providing concrete evidence of misuse or illegal activity.
So far, a large number of USAID employees have been put on leave, restricting their access to their workspace and ordering them to stop all work. Hundreds of independent contractors have been laid off or furloughed. Guidance to employees has been inconsistent and unclear, stoking fear and chaos amongst staff worldwide.
"It's just so stupid and dangerous," one USAID employee told NPR. "We have [never] destroyed more goodwill and trust in such a short period of time."
Now, the source insisted, vulnerable countries will be much more open to influence by U.S. adversaries like China and Russia.
