Democrats hit back after Elon Musk says Donald Trump has agreed to close aid agency

A contract worker sits in front of the USAid office with a message written on a piece of paper (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

Democrats have condemned the Trump administration’s attempts to gut an agency that provides aid overseas to fund education and fight starvation and disease, calling it illegal and vowing to fight it in court.

Staff of the US Agency for International Development (USAid) were instructed to stay out of the organisation’s Washington headquarters, and officers blocked Democratic legislators from entering the lobby on Monday, after Elon Musk announced that Donald Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency.