Top Trump official tasked with dismantling USAID is out
Pete Marocco, the Trump administration official tasked with dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, told State Department staff on Tuesday night that he is stepping away from his role at USAID and returning to his previous role at the State Department, according to an email obtained by ABC News.
"It's been my honor to assist Secretary Rubio in his leadership of USAID through some difficult stages to pivot this enterprise away from its abuses of the past," Marocco said in the email. "Now that USAID is under control, accountable and stable, I am going to return to my post as the Director of Foreign Assistance to bring value back to the American people."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio named Marocco USAID deputy administrator in early February, and Marocco -- along with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency -- led the widespread effort to dismantle the agency by laying off thousands of employees, revoking funding for more than 80% of its programs, and shedding its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
Marocco said in his email that he is leaving now that "USAID is under control, accountable, and stable" -- however many of the administration's moves are currently being challenged or stalled in the courts, with a judge on Tuesday ruling that the dismantling of USAID was unconstitutional.
A State Department official confirmed that Marocco would return to his role as the agency's Director of Foreign Assistance, and that two political appointees would assume the responsibilities of the deputy administrator.
Those two individuals are Jeremy Lewin, who will serve as USAID COO and Deputy Administrator for Policy and Programs, and Ken Jackson, who will be USAID CFO and Deputy Administrator for Management and Resources, according to Marocco's email.
Lewin, 28, has been working with DOGE at the State Department, helping in the effort to dismantle USAID, sources told ABC News. He graduated in 2022 from Harvard Law School, where he co-authored multiple op-eds with renowned liberal constitutional law expert Laurence Tribe.
He was later hired as an associate in the Los Angeles office of the law firm Munger, Towles & Olsen, according to a now-defunct profile on the firm's website.
Lewin appears to have no apparent government experience, though his law firm bio claimed that he had "confidentially advised senior global policymakers -- including the U.S. President and senior Congressional leaders, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zekelsnkyy, and senior members of the G7 and UN -- on matters of international law and policy."
Critics of the Trump administration say its efforts to nullify the agency will cripple American influence overseas and carry devastating effects for some of the most vulnerable populations in the world, which relied on U.S. funding for health care, food, and other basic needs.
In a statement shared by the State Department, Marocco said that "the crisis-level issues that had plagued USAID were far worse than we anticipated," and that "It has been an honor and a privilege to help restore accountability and transparency at USAID."
