[jedilord]

How is it an illegal operation?

[exceptione]

I don't know? To this day people still fuss about concentration camps here, while the leader clearly had given authority to do so. People are just too political these days.

By the way, I heard the Palestinian Problem is going to be solved for good?

[mplewis]

DOGE does not have the authority to shut down independent agencies of the US Government such as USAID.

[impulser_]

They aren't. They are informing the President and the President does it either by EO or asking congress.

[zosima]

DOGE gets its authority through the president. The president definitely has the authority to audit and/or stop illegal, fraudulent or just wasteful transactions.

The exact shape or form of USAID is also up to the president. It was created through an executive order, and can of course also be transformed through one.

[skissane]

DOGE didn’t shut down USAID. Musk talked Trump and Rubio into doing it and they did.

Musk is essentially a presidential advisor, and legally an advisor can advise the President to do pretty much anything. Even if the thing they are advising the President to do is illegal, the President is the one who bears the legal responsibility for the action, not the advisor.

In really extreme cases, like if Musk were advising Trump to commit genocide, or carry out a military coup, or transfer a billion dollars out of US Treasury into someone’s personal bank account, and Trump followed the advice, Musk might be held legally liable for having given it. But shutting down a government agency isn’t anything like that. The legality of shutting it down is debatable, but even if ultimately held to be illegal, it isn’t the genocide or military coup or blatant corruption kind of illegal.