A Wall Street Journal report on Sunday detailed that Pete Marocco, hired at State less than three months ago to oversee the slashing of contracts at USAID and the significant reductions to its workforce, was told to return his agency badge and laptop late last week after a meeting at the White House.
A senior Trump administration official confirmed Marocco’s departure from the State Department in a statement to the outlet.
“Pete was brought to State with a big mission — to conduct an exhaustive review of every dollar spent on foreign assistance. He conducted that historic task and exposed egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars. We all expect big things are in store for Pete on his next mission,” the senior official said.
“He is no longer at State,” the official added.
It is unclear at this time whether Marocco will also be leaving the Trump administration entirely, though U.S. officials did disclose that there were tensions between Marocco and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, specifically over the scale of the USAID cuts. While Marocco pushed for more extensive cuts to the agency, Rubio wanted to keep as many lifesaving initiatives as possible, according to the officials.
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Just last month, Rubio announced that 83% of USAID’s contracts would be canceled because they did not serve U.S. interests. Rubio also said at the time that roughly 1,000 USAID programs would continue but that they would be handled under the State Department rather than USAID. These moves are part of the Trump administration’s broader goal of shuttering the agency completely, a move that has been met with legal challenges.
Recent reporting from the Washington Examiner indicated that two Republican senators are moving to use funding allocated for USAID to instead repair housing for veterans, in what is a further targeting of the already embattled agency.
