The website of the US Agency for International Development went offline without explanation Saturday as thousands of furloughs, layoffs and program shutdowns continued amid President Donald Trump’s freeze on US-funded foreign aid and development worldwide, writes CNN.

“Congressional Democrats have battled the Trump administration increasingly openly, expressing concern that Trump may be headed toward ending USAID as an independent agency and absorbing it into the State Department. Democrats say Trump has no legal authority to eliminate a congressionally funded independent agency, and that the work of USAID is vital to national security.

Trump and congressional Republicans say much of foreign aid and development programs are wasteful. They single out programs they say advance liberal social agendas. The fear of even tougher administration action against USAID comes two weeks into the administration’s shutdown of billions of dollars of the United States’ humanitarian, development and security assistance.

The US is the world’s largest donor of humanitarian aid by far. It spends less than 1% of its budget on foreign assistance, a smaller share overall than some other countries. Administration officials had no comment Saturday when asked about concerns expressed by lawmakers and others that Trump may be planning to end USAID as an independent agency.

Billionaire Elon Musk, advising Trump in a campaign to whittle down the federal government in the name of efficiency, endorsed posts on his X site calling for dissolving USAID. “Live by executive order, die by executive order”, Musk posted Saturday in reference to USAID.

Trump placed an unprecedented 90-day freeze on foreign assistance on his first day in office January 20. Days later, the State Department froze nearly all foreign assistance worldwide, shutting down thousands of programs around the world and forcing the furloughs or layoffs of many thousands”.