- A fired USAID worker says security stopped him from taking one last photo of his wife's office memorial.
- The Trump administration has dismantled USAID and fired most of its staff.
- Workers at the agency's DC headquarters were given a short window of time to clear out their desks.
A recently fired US Agency for International Development worker spoke with reporters on Thursday about his exit, saying security stopped him from taking one last photo of a memorial to his wife in the office.
In a video shared on X by the NewsNation reporter Joe Khalil, the former USAID employee, Adam Tomasek, described the abrupt departure.
"My first wife passed away," Tomasek told reporters outside USAID headquarters. "She was honored on the memorial wall. She was a foreign service officer herself, so I wanted to take another photo to send to her mother."
Tomasek said he got into an argument with the security guard who refused to let him take a photo.
"I explained my story to him, and he said, 'No, we have instructions,'" Tomasek said. "You are not allowed — no photos, no videos."
Workers at USAID were forced to clear out their offices this week after the Trump administration largely dismantled the foreign aid agency and terminated most of its staff.
Earlier this week, USAID workers received notices that they were being fired or placed on leave — including thousands who worked at the agency's Washington headquarters — and that the Trump administration was ending 90% of the agency's contracts, The Associated Press reported.
USAID, which has funded humanitarian efforts around the world, was one of the first targets of the Trump administration's expansive cost-cutting efforts.
The US channeled nearly $32.5 billion through the agency in 2024, providing aid to countries such as Ukraine, Jordan, and Ethiopia. Still, foreign aid spending makes up less than 1% of the federal budget.
Elon Musk, who's closely linked to DOGE, has called USAID a "criminal organization" and wrote on X on February 3 that he "spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper." Hours later, USAID workers were told to stay home from work, and within days, the agency announced that direct-hire personnel would be placed on leave globally, with a few exceptions.
After federal workers unions sued over the dismantling of USAID, a federal judge granted the Trump administration a win on February 21, saying it could continue placing the agency's workers on leave.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued a stay allowing Trump to continue his freeze on foreign aid money allocated by USAID.
Experts have said the shutdown of USAID is illegal, while others have said it could make China more powerful on the world stage.
Tomasek and a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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