USAID Employees Hide Pride Flags During DOGE Visit Amid Spending Review
USAID employees reportedly hid Pride flags and other materials during a visit from the Department of Government Efficiency, which is reviewing the agency's spending under directives from the executive office.
A USAID contractor recalled how she and her fellow employees "took down our Pride flags" once they knew that the Department of Government Efficiency was visiting their office.
A USAID worker said Monday that office employees scrambled to hide anything "incriminating" when the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) came knocking.
DOGE is not a government agency but has been tasked by the White House's executive office with dismantling wasteful spending initiatives, and "special government employee" Elon Musk's most recent target is the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The billionaire has argued that the agency is "beyond repair" and said President Donald Trump agreed that USAID should be closed down. Musk moved to rapidly seize control of USAID and shut it down.
ABC News reported on how DOGE showed up at USAID offices in Washington, D.C., late last week and demanded access, speaking to one employee who claimed to have seen it all play out.
"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," Kristina Drye, a speechwriter for USAID, said. "No one was talking. We heard they started taking transcripts automatically of all of our Google Meets."
She added further, "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."
On Monday, the White House listed a variety of questionable and DEI-related projects USAID has contributed to.
At the top of the list was a $1.5 million program slated to "advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces and business communities" and a $70,000 program for a "DEI musical" in Ireland.
Initiatives that supported LGBTQI programs were also flagged as an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds, including $32,000 for a "transgender comic book" in Peru.
