The Department of Government Efficiency’s decapitation strike against USAID over the weekend has caught the media off guard. Nonetheless, they are mustering a desperate response in hopes of saving the agency that embodies both the Deep State and the worst excesses of bloated government bureaucracy.
Most representative of the overall reporting is the brief that ran on the CBS Evening News, which provides both a convenient summary of the story’s narratives now and going forward:
CBS EVENING NEWS
2/3/25
6:38 PM
JOHN DICKERSON: Doors were locked at the Washington headquarters of USAID today at the mutual agreement of President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, whom he has empowered to remake the federal government. The USAID, established by President Kennedy and Congress, fights starvation and disease in more than 100 countries including Sudan, scene of the worst humanitarian crisis on Earth. Debora Patta will take us there later this week.
The narrative elements are all there. Trump and Elon, Elon is a billionaire, USAID is a nice agency that helps poor and starving people overseas. In addition, viewers learn that Debora Patta is doing a supporting story from Sudan, where there is an ongoing famine.
ABC and NBC took similar approaches to this emerging narrative. Jon Karl handled the assignment for ABC and provided a similar humanitarian angle:
JON KARL: Tonight, backlash after Elon Musk seized control of USAID, the agency that provides U.S. humanitarian assistance around the world. Locking out employees, essentially shutting it down. It's Musk's first major move to slash government spending.
ELON MUSK: As we dug into USAID, it became apparent that we have here is not an apple with a worm in it but we have, actually, just a ball of worms.
KARL: USAID's $43 billion budget is a tiny fraction of what the government spends. About 1%. But its support is a critical lifeline for people in need around the world. Helping an estimated 32 million children suffering malnutrition and bringing food, water, shelter, and healthcare to victims of natural disasters.
Karl’s report would disclose that the salvageable remnant of USAID is getting folded into the State Department, under supervision of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But not before hilariously airing a woke USAID employee’s efforts to mask their wokeness as DOGE approached:
ABC actually aired a USAID employee's description of the scramble as DOGE rolled up to the office, and their hurried removal of woke iconography a la the documents burning scene in Downfall:
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) February 4, 2025
"@DOGE was in the building. We started -- we took down our pride flags, we took down- I… pic.twitter.com/gSsx3H6Mgc
KARL: But Elon Musk's influence is sweeping throughout the administration. It was late last week that the DOGE team showed up at USAID offices in Washington and demanded access. USAID employee Kristina Drye described the scene.
KRISTINA DRYE: DOGE was in the building. We started -- we took down our Pride flags, we took down -- I took out any books I felt would be incriminating. No one was talking, We heard they started taking transcripts automatically of all of our Google Meets. We -- they unplugged the news in the little kitchen galleys. It didn't feel good. And then Saturday, all of the websites went down. And then I lost complete access to my computer.
NBC News also pushed the humanitarian aid angle:
KELLY O’DONNELL: A top Musk target, the U.S. Agency for International Development. He argues there's too much waste in its $42 billion budget. USAID delivers food, medicine, vaccinations and humanitarian support to 60 countries, help that is considered vital to U.S. national security.
Additionally, Kelly O’Donnell featured protesting Democrats, and a former USAID doctor before pivoting to potential firings at the FBI. It goes without saying that the reports didn’t air all the OTHER stuff that USAID notoriously funds, from transgender opera in Colombia to gain-of-function bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Virology Institute, to Soros DA candidates in the United States.
Gutting USAID was a deep strike to the beating heart of the American left and all that it funds. The media are aiding and abetting the left in their scramble to save their revered cash cow.
Click “exoand” to view the full transcripts of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective newscasts on Monday, February 3rd, 2025:
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
2/3/25
6:36 PM
DAVID MUIR: Tonight, there are new questions about Elon Musk's role. He's now been classified a '"special government employee", so, what does this mean? ABC News had already learned that Musk has been given access to the Treasury Department's payment system, including the personal information of millions of American workers. And tonight, Musk working to shut down USAID, or vastly reimagine the agency. Workers informed to stay home. Today in the Oval Office, President Trump was asked, “why has Musk been given access to the Treasury, the payment systems, the information involving millions of Americans?” The president answering on Musk: “to let people go that he thinks are no good, if we agree with him.” Here's Jonathan Karl.
JON KARL: Tonight, backlash after Elon Musk seized control of USAID, the agency that provides U.S. humanitarian assistance around the world. Locking out employees, essentially shutting it down. It's Musk's first major move to slash government spending.
ELON MUSK: As we dug into USAID, it became apparent that we have here is not an apple with a worm in it but we have, actually, just a ball of worms.
KARL: USAID's $43 billion budget is a tiny fraction of what the government spends. About 1%. But its support is a critical lifeline for people in need around the world. Helping an estimated 32 million children suffering malnutrition and bringing food, water, shelter, and healthcare to victims of natural disasters. But Musk, the world’s richest man, says the agency is hopeless, posting on X, quote, “we spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” This comes as sources tell ABC News Musk's team at the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, now has access to the Treasury Department's payment system. This is essentially the government's checkbook. It processes trillions of dollars in payments and includes the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans.
REPORTER: Mr. President, why is it important for Elon Musk to have access to the payment systems at Treasury?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, he's got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good, if we agree with him. And it's only if we agree with him. He's a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs.
KARL: Democrats are outraged.
PATTY MURRAY: An unelected, unaccountable billionaire with expansive conflicts of interest, deep ties to China, and an indiscreet axe to grind against perceived enemies is hijacking our nation's most sensitive financial data systems and its checkbook.
KARL: But Elon Musk's influence is sweeping throughout the administration. It was late last week that the DOGE team showed up at USAID offices in Washington and demanded access. USAID employee Kristina Drye described the scene.
KRISTINA DRYE: DOGE was in the building. We started -- we took down our pride flags, we took down- I took out any books I felt would be incriminating. No one was talking, We heard they started taking transcripts automatically of all of our Google meets. We -- they unplugged the news in the little kitchen galleys. It didn't feel good. And then Saturday, all of the websites went down. And then I lost complete access to my computer.
KARL: And this morning, all the agency's employees received a notice, telling them not to come to work today. Now, what is left of USAID is going to be folded into the State Department under the direction of the new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
MUIR: All right. Jonathan Karl and our team following all of this from Washington. Jon, Elon Musk now classified, as I mentioned, as a '"special government employee". So, tell us exactly what this means tonight.
KARL: A '"special government employee", David, is basically somebody who is on the job temporarily. A maximum of 130 days. They are not bound by the same ethics requirements that full-time government employees are, but again, can only be on the job for 130 days. Elon Musk is not being paid for his work at the Department of Government Efficiency, but David, his companies have taken in nearly $19 billion in federal contracts over the last ten years.
MUIR: Jon Karl in Washington tonight, Jon, thank you.
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
2/3/25
6:35 PM
HALLIE JACKSON: Also playing out tonight, a sprawling effort to scale back parts of the federal government, and a push led by Elon Musk. And President Trump facing new questions about the role of the unelected billionaire. Here is Senior White House Correspondent Kelly O'Donnell.
KELLY O’DONNELL: Tonight, this partnership of power under intense new scrutiny. President Trump and the world's richest man Elon Musk, upending federal agencies, to overhaul government and/spending. The president acknowledged that Musk can get inside sensitive government computers, like the Treasury Department Payment System.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, he's got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good if we agree with him, and it's only if we agree with him.
O’DONNELL: The White House says in his role running the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk is designated as a '"special government employee" with top-secret security clearance.
TRUMP: Elon can't do and won't do anything without our approval and we will give him the approval where appropriate. Where not appropriate, we won’t.
O’DONNELL: A top Musk target, the U.S. Agency for International Development. He argues there's too much waste in its $42 billion budget. USAID delivers food, medicine, vaccinations and humanitarian support to 60 countries, help that is considered vital to U.S. national security. Musk spoke on his X platform, declaring the agency must be shut down.
ELON MUSK: What we have here is not an apple with a worm in it but we have, actually, just a ball of worms.
O’DONNELL: Secretary of State Marco Rubio says core life-saving programs will not be frozen during a 90-day review.
MARCO RUBIO: These are not donor dollars, these are taxpayer dollars. (VIDEO SWIPE) So far, a lot of the people that work at USAID have simply refused to cooperate.
O’DONNELL: USAID is authorized and funded by Congress. Today, Democratic lawmakers blasted the shutdown as illegal and dangerous.
JAMIE RASKIN: Elon Musk did not create USAID, he doesn't have the power to destroy it. (VIDEO SWIPE) We are going to stop him.
O’DONNELL: USAID workers told to stay home as many relief programs are halted.
Are lives on the line because of this?
ATUL GAWANDE: Lives have already been lost because of this.
O’DONNELL: Former [Democrat] USAID official Dr. Atul Gawande says the relief workers he knows are devastated.
GAWANDE: They’re in fear for what this means for America, what this means for the people that they touch and they are in fear for themselves.
O’DONNELL: Fear is also rattling the FBI tonight. Eight top career officials fired Friday, and a top official seeking names of agents who worked on January 6th cases. The FBI Agents’ Association in a statement described agents as “extremely fearful of being removed”, and some “started to pack up their desks.”
JACKSON: Kelly is joining us now from The White House and Kelly, all of this is happening as the Senate is considering President Trump's nominee for FBI Director, Kash Patel.
O’DONNELL: That’s right. And in his hearing and under oath, Kash Patel pledged all FBI employees would be protected against political retribution. But tonight Senate Democrats are now demanding additional information about all of this. Hallie.
JACKSON: Kelly O’Donnell. Thank you.
