By Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The administration of President Donald Trump has appointed a key member of billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency as the acting head of foreign assistance at the State Department, according to a senior U.S. official and an internal email seen by Reuters.
A senior State Department official confirmed on Tuesday that Jeremy Lewin, who was among the senior DOGE staffers involved in the dismantling of U.S. Agency for International Development, was serving as acting director of foreign assistance.
“F folks — very much looking forward to working with you,” Lewin said in an internal email.
The young DOGE staffer would be replacing Pete Marocco, a Trump administration official who was a mastermind of the breaking up of the USAID, once Washington’s top humanitarian arm. Whatever is left of the agency will likely be folded into the State Department.
Lewin has also been working as USAID’s acting deputy administrator for at least over a month. It was not immediately clear if he would be serving in both positions.
His appointment comes as the Trump administration is finalizing its dismantling of USAID as part of an unprecedented effort by Trump and his adviser Musk on shrinking the federal government to stop what they say is wasteful spending of taxpayer money.
Since taking office on January 20, the administration has canceled billions of dollars in foreign aid saying the causes it were funding were not aligned with Trump’s “America First” priorities.
The sweeping revamp of U.S. assistance has jeopardized the delivery of life-saving food and medical aid and has thrown global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.
In March, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration canceled more than 80% of all USAID programs. On Tuesday, he said in an X post that the State Department has canceled another 139 grants worth $214 million.
Last week, the administration moved to reinstate at least six recently canceled U.S. foreign aid programs for emergency food assistance, just a few days after scrapping them. Lewin had apologized for the “back and forth” on the decisions over the programs, according to an internal USAID email seen by Reuters.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
