Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) went on an unhinged rant on Monday, strongly criticizing President Donald Trump for what she described as dictatorial behavior in his attempts to cut excessive government spending and save taxpayers money. Omar argued that reducing unnecessary government expenditures is a troubling first step toward authoritarianism. “It is really, really a sad day in America,” Omar whined in a speech outside the USAID offices after the Trump administration ordered their funding cut off.
“We are witnessing a constitutional crisis. We talked about Trump wanting to be a dictator on day one, and here we are. This is what the beginning of dictatorship looks like.” The Minnesota Democrat’s meltdown centered around government agencies like USAID, which she claimed are essential to America’s “soft power” abroad. “What Trump and Elon and all of their cronies are trying to do is take away the constitutional power of Congress,” she raged. “We get to decide where money is allocated.”
USAID and other government programs have a reputation for lacking oversight. Omar also tried to advocate for federal workers, arguing that layoffs don’t genuinely save money since employees might still receive pay while at home. “Do you want people at home getting a paycheck and not providing services to you?” she asked in the video below. “The answer is no.”
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Omar’s outburst is a recent illustration of the Democrats’ anxiety as Trump prepares to make significant changes in Washington. A new report indicates that the U.S. Agency for International Development, commonly known as USAID, closed its headquarters to personnel on Monday due to actions taken by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is currently headed by Elon Musk. An email was sent to agency personnel stating that the decision came from “Agency leadership.” The message instructed all replies to be directed to an email address associated with Gavin Kliger, who serves as the special adviser to the director of the Office of Personnel Management and is also part of DOGE, according to The Wall Street Journal.
On Monday, Musk stated that President Trump “agreed” to shut down USAID, which allocates billions of dollars in purported humanitarian, development, and security aid to more than 100 countries. “None of this could be done without the full support of the President, you know. And with regard to the USAID stuff, I went over it with him in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down,” Musk said in an X Spaces discussion. “And I actually checked with him a few times. I said, ‘Are you sure?’ He’s like, ‘Yes,’” the X platform boss continued. “So we’re shutting it down.”
“So to be clear, in shutting down, which we’re in the process of doing, shutting down USAID, the reason for that, as opposed to simply trying to do some minor house cleaning, is that, as we dug into USAID, it became apparent that what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms,” Musk explained, according to a report from The Hill.
“If you’ve got an apple that’s got a worm in it, maybe you can take the worm out, but if you’ve got actually just a ball of worms, it’s hopeless. And USAID is a ball of worms. There is no apple. And when there is no apple, you’ve just got to basically get rid of the whole thing,” Musk then stated. “That is why it’s got to go. It’s beyond repair.”