The US Agency for International Development (USAID) faced an unprecedented shutdown days after President Donald Trump labelled the agency “corrupt.” Established by then-President John F. Kennedy, the agency's dozens of officials were put on leave, and thousands of contractors were laid off. This mass termination came as Trump and his new-founded department of government efficiency (DOGE), led by billionaire Elon Musk, worked to shut down the foreign aid agency to merge it into the State Department. Expectedly, social media is buzzing with posts about this incident, and a cheeky one from the Indian-origin CEO of Perplexity AI, Aravind Srinivas, has attracted people’s attention.
What did Aravind Srinivas post?
“Considering raising $500B from USAID,” he wrote, adding, “Funding secured. Stop me if you can Elon Musk,” he wrote.
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Check out the post:
Social media is divided:
People posted varied comments while reacting to the share addressed to the billionaire. While some praised his humour, others said his X post wasn’t funny. A few slammed him.
{{/usCountry}}People posted varied comments while reacting to the share addressed to the billionaire. While some praised his humour, others said his X post wasn’t funny. A few slammed him.
{{/usCountry}}An individual wrote, “Dude, you’re funny.” Another added, “When you’re desperate to be relevant.” A third commented, “Go ahead, we’re shutting it down, you piece of s**t!”
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What is USAID?
Established in 1961, the agency was created to support international development. To date, it has provided billions in humanitarian assistance overseas. In a recent statement, However, President Trump said that the agency is “run by a bunch of radical lunatics.” DOGE head Elon Musk added to this by labelling USAID a “criminal organization.” With the freezing of foreign aid, USAID programs have been brought to a screeching halt. The government has shut down US-funded programs for 90-day review.
“To be very explicit about what is being turned off, the sort of things that are being stopped, are programs that support 20 million people on lifesaving HIV treatment right now,” Jeremy Konyndyk, a former USAID employee and president of Refugees International, a rights advocacy organization, told NBC News.
“That’s a huge risk to those individuals, but it’s also a risk to the health of the world more broadly,” Konyndyk added.