Dr. Atul Gawande said denigrating the agency is "dangerous for the country" and shuttering its programs could make Americans less safe.

In its first two weeks, President Donald Trump’s administration has made significant changes to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Billionaire businessman Elon Musk said on Monday that President Trump agreed the United States Agency for International Development should be shut down.

By Jonathan Landay, Steve Holland and Daphne Psaledakis WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration said it would lock U.S. Agency for International Development workers out of their headquarters in downtown Washington DC for a second day on Tuesday as it moved to shutter the agency,

The U.S. Agency for International Development is in crisis as workers report being locked out, adding to the growing sense that President Trump will dismantle the government’s lead humanitarian aid agency.

In an unprecedented flexing of the power of the executive branch, unelected billionaire Elon Musk is shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The Agency for International Development supports a wide range of programs in countries around the world, from disaster relief to public health, but Musk said it was “time” for USAID to “die.”

Formed in 1961, the agency with a roughly $40 billion budget provides humanitarian assistance abroad and funds other projects to further U.S. interests.

Until a few days ago, most Americans might have gone their entire lives without hearing of the US Agency for International Development, the little-known government organization that the world’s wealthiest man targeted for dissolution over the weekend by labeling it as a criminal enterprise on his social media platform.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has been in the headlines following Texas billionaire Elon Musk's comments about the shutdown.