The Truth About "Trump vs USAID"

Can Trump (or Musk) Legally Shut down USAID or Department of Education?

Testing or Exceeding The Limits of Executive Power?

Despite Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under President Trump’s direction, neither he nor the President has the legal authority to unilaterally shut it down. USAID was created by Congress under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, and its funding and existence are determined by congressional appropriations. Similarly, the Department of Education was established by the Department of Education Organization Act of 1979 and cannot be abolished by executive action alone. According to legal experts, any attempt to dissolve a federal agency requires an act of Congress (Business Insider).

Can They Use a Workaround to Accomplish it Anyway?

While outright abolition requires legislative approval, the executive branch can effectively neutralize an agency through administrative maneuvering. This includes tactics such as mass firings, forced leaves of absence, cutting off operational funding, refusing to fill key positions, or moving responsibilities to other departments. Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) has already taken steps to lock USAID employees out of their offices and suspend senior officials who opposed the shutdown (Reuters). Similarly, previous administrations have sought to eliminate or weaken agencies by drastically reducing staff and resources without explicitly shutting them down.

Congress Holds the Purse Strings

Even if the executive branch cripples USAID or the Department of Education operationally, Congress retains control over their funding and statutory authority. Attempts to bypass this power would likely be challenged in court, as past administrations have discovered when attempting to defund or restructure federal agencies without legislative approval. The real question is whether congressional leadership will step in to protect these agencies—or whether a combination of executive overreach and congressional inaction could render them effectively powerless, even if they technically still exist.

To legally abolish federal agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) or the Department of Education, Congress must pass legislation that explicitly disbands these entities. This process involves both chambers of Congress—the House of Representatives and the Senate—approving the proposed legislation, followed by the President signing it into law.

House of Representatives: A simple majority vote (more than half of the members present and voting) is required to pass the legislation.

Senate: Similarly, a simple majority is needed to pass the bill. However, the Senate’s procedural rules introduce additional complexities. To bring a bill to a vote, the Senate often needs to invoke “cloture” to end debate, which requires a three-fifths majority (typically 60 out of 100 senators). This means that even if a bill has majority support, it can be stalled by a filibuster unless 60 senators vote to proceed.

Therefore, while a simple majority is sufficient in both chambers to pass legislation, the Senate’s cloture rule effectively necessitates a 60-vote threshold to overcome potential filibusters and advance to a final vote.

COMMENT: This is part of a series of posts I will continue to do, which take what I intend as a clearheaded, fact-based look at the various actions being undertaken by the Trump administration that are provoking consternation on the left. These are not going to be “hair on fire” hysterical “it’s a coup!” rants — until or unless that is clearly warranted. My point is to subject these actions to rationale scrutiny against the backdrop of the law and tradition. Stay tuned for more of this.