(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and other Democrats are threatening to stall Donald Trump’s State Department confirmations until he reopens the U.S. Agency for International Development—an ostensible humanitarian organization that has instead been used to propagandize foreign populations and overthrow governments.
Schatz’s threat to stall confirmations comes after USAID staffers were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters. Yellow police tape and officers blocked the agency’s lobby on Monday, after billionaire Elon Musk announced President Donald Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency.
USAID staffers also said more than 600 additional employees had reported being locked out of the aid agency’s computer systems overnight. Those still in the system received emails saying that “at the direction of Agency leadership” the headquarters building “will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.” The agency’s website vanished Saturday without explanation.
In response to all that, Schatz said he’s going to no longer agree to “unanimous consent”—a process that automatically approves a nominee if no senator objects.
People are out here advocating for USAID pic.twitter.com/tZr8CjkAdm
— Radix Verum ☦︎ (@NotRadix) February 3, 2025
“I will oppose unanimous consent,” Schatz told the Journal, which explained that doing away with unanimous consent would require Senate Majority Leader John Thune to use precious floor time to advance the president’s picks through the confirmation process.
“I will vote no. I will do maximal delays until this is resolved,” Schatz said.
Representatives for the White House and State Department didn’t immediately return the Journal’s requests for comment.
Schatz’s threats represent the most aggressive move by Democrats yet to combat Trump’s executive actions since coming into office two weeks ago. It also jeopardizes the president’s ability to get his national security team in place in time.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., also said he’s going to be “willing to take up USAID’s cause,” the Journal reported.
USAID has a long history of being used essentially as a CIA cutout.
Chris Murphy: USAID supports freedom fighters everywhere in this world"
Thanks for proving that USAID is a CIA front that promotes Regime Change all over the world Chris pic.twitter.com/4sFKkIWSt9
— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) February 3, 2025
In 2003, for instance, the Bush administration used the USAID to foment a coup against the Georgian government. According to antiwar.com editorial director Scott Horton, the coup was assisted by a non-profit organization called the Liberty Institute, which at the time was funded by the USAID and George Soros.
More recently, the Biden administration’s head of USAID, Samantha Power, was involved in numerous regime-change efforts—most notoriously, in Libya.
As noted by antiwar.com’s Dave DeCamp, Power pushed for the coup against Libyan ruler Moammar Gaddafi when she was on Barrack Obama’s National Security Council. Since the overthrow of Gaddafi, Libya is now a failed state with open slave markets.
Most recently, Power was accused last February of fomenting unrest in Hungary, where Viktor Orban crushed his globalist opponents in the nation’s 2022 elections.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
