White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview published Tuesday that she was at first “aghast” at Elon Musk’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
“I was initially aghast,” Wiles told author Chris Whipple in an article published in Vanity Fair. “Because I think anybody that pays attention to government and has ever paid attention to USAID believed, as I did, that they do very good work.”
Musk was tasked with leading the Department of Government Efficiency, designed to slash the size and scope of the federal government. Within days of taking office, Musk and his allies targeted USAID, an agency formed in 1961 to provide assistance to developing nations.
The Trump administration paused or canceled numerous contracts through USAID and sought to fold the agency into the State Department. The moves caused significant backlash among advocates who argued it would lead to crises in poorer nations that relied on USAID for food, medical supplies and other programs.
Wiles told Whipple that Musk’s approach was not how she would have handled the issue.
“When Elon said, ‘We’re doing this,’ he was already into it,” Wiles said. “And that’s probably because he knew it would be horrifying to others. But he decided that it was a better approach to shut it down, fire everybody, shut them out, and then go rebuild. Not the way I would do it.”
She attributed Musk’s handling to his background as the CEO of Tesla and founder of SpaceX.
“Elon’s attitude is you have to get it done fast. If you’re an incrementalist, you just won’t get your rocket to the moon,” Wiles said. “And so with that attitude, you’re going to break some china. But no rational person could think the USAID process was a good one. Nobody.”
Wiles described Musk as an “avowed ketamine [user]” and an “odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are.”
Musk departed the government at the end of May. He and President Trump had an explosive falling out, spurred in part by Musk’s criticism of the massive tax and spending legislation that contained many of Trump’s legislative priorities. The two have since made amends and have spoken in the months since their strife.