Rubio says he’s acting director of USAID as humanitarian agency is taken over by the State Department

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that he is acting administrator of the US Agency for International Development, confirming the de-facto takeover of the humanitarian agency by the State Department.

Rubio said in a letter to lawmakers Monday he had delegated the authority of acting administrator to Pete Marocco, a Trump appointee who served at USAID in the president’s first term and has been accused by aid groups and officials of intentionally dismantling the organization.

Marocco, who is also serving as the State Department’s head of foreign assistance, drafted the directive to freeze almost all foreign aid. One aid official said that Marocco “knows how the system works and is dismantling it at every turn.”