Senate Democrats are split over how to push back against President Trump’s attempts to slash the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an embattled front line in the larger fight against the administration’s effort to overhaul the federal government.

On one side are Democrats trying to enlist Republican allies, who have historically been staunch supporters of foreign assistance as a key tool in competing with China for global influence and security. The other wing is banging the drum for action, obstruction and public opposition to the Republican triumvirate in Washington, arguing that bipartisanship is futile.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is in the collaborative camp. “I was just thinking about … how we bring our Republicans — so many of whom we work with all the time and respect — to the point where they're not acquiescing in this,” said this week.

“Many of them care about national security and they care about the issues, I know, I've worked with them.”

A senior Senate Democratic adviser said banking on these Republicans to influence the White House was futile.

“Even if the GOP are weighing in, it’s not helping,” they said.

Democrats advocating obstruction warn that Trump’s moves to overhaul USAID and fold it into the State Department — spearheaded by Elon Musk and his colleagues at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — is the first salvo from an administration that wants to run roughshod over Congress’s power of the purse.

“We are observing a ransacking of an agency absolutely outside of the four corners of the statute, Foreign Assistance Act and every appropriations bill subsequent to that, plus the Constitution of the United States,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii.).

Over a dizzying three weeks, Trump allowed Musk’s DOGE to effectively shut down USAID. This included infiltrating USAID’s electronic systems and cutting staff off from their emails, work systems, and taking control of payment operations to block disbursement.

While Secretary of State Marco Rubio insists lifesaving programs under the agency are continuing, the sudden changes and dismissals have thrust the global aid community into uncertainty and disarray.

One of Musk’s DOGE staffers was reportedly put in a position at the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, raising alarm over access to operational systems and signaling that the cuts and disruption could........

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