Marocco held several national security positions during the first Trump administration, including at USAID, where he tried to consolidate po
Marocco held several national security positions during the first Trump administration, including at USAID, where he tried to consolidate power and slash funding.
By Vaughn Hillyard, Abigail Williams, Rebecca Shabad, Ryan Nobles and Ryan J. Reilly
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio has empowered a top official at the State Department to run the U.S. Agency for International Development and begin reviewing all of the work done by the government agency targeted for dismantling by President Donald Trump and tech billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
Rubio tapped Pete Marocco, the director of foreign assistance at the State Department, to begin reviewing all of the work done by USAID. He also warned that certain projects or programs might be suspended or eliminated.
Marocco held several national security positions during the first Trump administration, including at USAID, where his attempts to consolidate power and slash funding drove officials to write a dissent memo that ultimately pushed him out of office, according to multiple sources who spoke with NBC News.
Right-wing media are focused on culture war battles as the Trump administration suspends lifesaving work from the U.S. Agency for Internatio
Gideon Taaffe at MMFA:
Right-wing media are focused on culture war battles as the Trump administration suspends lifesaving work from the U.S. Agency for International Development, cherry-picking USAID programs to dismiss the agency as “woke,” “radical,” and “overwhelmingly hard left.” In reality, USAID is responsible for providing health care and nutritional aid to thousands of the world’s vulnerable people, many living in war-torn regions.
The Trump administration has sought to put a halt to USAID’s operations
On February 4, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that USAID was now under the direct authority of the State Department, and the administration froze U.S. foreign aid. Rubio placed Pete Marocco in charge of USAID; he served in the agency during Trump’s first term and has been accused of attempting to dismantle it during his tenure. [CNN, 2/3/25]
Following Rubio’s takeover, 10,000 USAID employees were placed on administrative leave, and a couple days later the Trump administration announced plans to leave fewer than 300 workers in place to carry out the organization’s work. A judge put a temporary pause on some of the Trump administration’s job cutting, resulting in 2,200 employees being reinstated but with uncertain futures at the agency. [USA Today, 2/4/25; The Associated Press, 2/6/25; NBC News, 2/7/25]
USAID workers in high-risk locations have reported being cut off from communication and were left unsure of how to access evacuation protocols. Employees of USAID are also facing interruptions to medical care and housing insecurity. [Kyle Cheney, Bluesky, 2/7/25]
Rubio claimed he had issued a blanket waiver for lifesaving programs, but workers on the ground have said that operations have come to a halt. While some programs have been granted a waiver to continue under Rubio, many have lost access to supplies, and payments to contractors that are covered by the waiver have not come through. That has affected emergency food aid in Ethiopia, a refugee camp in Syria, a resettlement program for victims of the Islamic State group, and more. One USAID worker told CNN, “That work is grounded to a halt because there’s no staff to manage it, and there’s no staff in DC to answer questions from partners.” [The Washington Post, 2/10/25; CNN, 2/8/25]
Right-wing media distort the USAID’s mission, falsely brand it as “woke.”
U.S. Department of State News: Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations Pete Marocco Travels to Bogota and Cali, Colombia
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U.S. Department of State News: Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations Pete Marocco Travels to Bogota and Cali, Colombia
WASHINGTON – U.S. Department of State today released the following statement:
IDeputy Assistant Secretary Pete Marocco will travel to Bogota and Cali, Colombia July 26-27.
In Cali and Bogota, Marocco will meet with community religious leaders, civil society representatives, and senior Colombian government officials to encourage continued peace accord implementation. CSO’s grantee, the Kroc Institute for Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, has supported peace accord implementation through rigorous monitoring and technical support since October 2016.
