A Trump administration official who was the architect of an effort to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development has left his position at the State Department, the department confirmed Monday.
Peter Marocco left his role as Director of the Office of Foreign Assistance, a position in which he oversaw severe cutbacks and layoffs to the agency known as USAID, the State Department said.
A senior administration official told CBS News that Marocco was brought to the State Department to conduct an exhaustive review of every dollar spent on foreign assistance.
Cuts to the agency were hailed by Rubio and others in the administrations, such as the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, who inspired the Department of Government Efficiency. Although DOGE was described by President Trump in a speech to Congress as “headed by Elon Musk” and Musk was tasked to work with the “White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform,” the administration has claimed Musk has no official role at DOGE.
Musk has sought, without publicly producing evidence, to portray USAID and other programs cut this year as emblematic of fraud and waste in the federal government. In March, a federal judge ruled that the USAID shutdown was likely unconstitutional, and his preliminary injunction prevents DOGE from taking any other action related to shutting down USAID.
Marocco is no stranger to jumping from position to position within a Trump administration. During President Trump’s first term, Marocco had stints at the Commerce Department, the Pentagon, State Department and USAID.
After Mr. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Marocco was a proponent of the false claim that Mr. Trump had won. During the four years that Mr. Trump was out of office, Marocco was out of government, living and working in Texas, where the U.S. Marine Corps veteran operated an advisory firm.
contributed to this report.
