WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, CBS News’ 60 Minutes aired a segment on Sunday featuring U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), where he discussed the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle our foreign aid apparatus and warned that it’s a “dress rehearsal” for the administration’s attacks on other essential parts of the federal government.
Shortly after taking office, President Trump signed an executive order freezing all foreign aid. Soon after, nearly all USAID personnel in the U.S. and abroad were put on paid administrative leave. Judges have temporarily halted Trump's efforts to dismantle USAID and freeze federal funding, but whether funding will start flowing again remains unclear.
“You're principally reporting on what's happened to USAID. It's a dress rehearsal,” Senator Coons said to 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley.
Senator Coons said that USAID is not the only agency on the chopping block. Elon Musk, head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has already begun to dismantle other agencies and entire departments of the federal government.
“Next up is the Department of Education. They're gonna take it down next. They're already talking about getting into and going after the Department of Labor, the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense, the Social Security Administration. Why?” said Senator Coons.
A video and transcript of Senator Coons’ segment are available below.
Senator Coons: You're principally reporting on what's happened to USAID. It's a dress rehearsal.
Chris Coons is a Democratic senator from Delaware — a member of the Committees on Appropriations and Foreign Relations.
Senator Coons: Next up is the Department of Education. They're going to take it down next. They're already talking about getting into and going after the Department of Labor, the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense, the Social Security Administration. Why?
Scott Pelley: Do you believe you have a sense of what DOGE is doing?
Senator Coons: No. I think DOGE is an unelected, unofficial, small group of young ‘tech bros’ who are charging into different federal agencies, getting into their core computer systems, doing things with them that at least I don't know the full details of, copying and downloading reams of data.
Scott Pelley: What does it matter that DOGE has access to U.S. government computer systems?
Senator Coons: What matters is that the U.S. government has information about you, about me – our Social Security information, our Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefit payments, things that matter to us, obviously – our tax filings. And if they have access to it and control it, they can change it.