USAID faces shutdown threat as Trump administration argues agency is 'insubordinate'

The Trump administration will present an unforgiving argument for dismantling the US Agency for International Development to a federal judge Wednesday: USAID is rife with “insubordination" and must be shut down for the administration to decide what pieces of it to salvage.

The argument, made in an affidavit by political appointee and deputy USAID administrator Pete Marocco, comes as the administration confronts a lawsuit by two groups representing federal employees.

USAID staffers deny insubordination and call the accusation a pretext to break up the more than 60-year-old agency, one of the world's biggest donors of humanitarian and development assistance.