A senior official at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is taking a leadership role at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), according to an email obtained by The Associated Press, giving DOGE a top job at an agency that it has helped to dismantle.

Jeremy Lewin, who has played a central role in DOGE's government-cutting efforts at USAID and other federal agencies, becomes at least the second DOGE lieutenant to be appointed to a top job at an agency during the Trump administration, further formalising the work of Musk's associates in the federal government.

The integral role that DOGE teams have played in the administration's push to dramatically reduce the size of the government has been divisive among the public and lawmakers.

Musk has faced heavy blowback from some and support from others for his chainsaw-wielding approach to laying off workers and slashing programmes.

Pete Marocco, a Trump administration political appointee who was serving as deputy head of USAID, disclosed the change in an email on Tuesday to State Department staff. It comes after Marocco and DOGE oversaw the gutting of 83 percent of USAID contracts, shifting the remaining programmes under the State Department.

Marocco said in his email that he will serve as the State Department's director of foreign assistance. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce on Wednesday confirmed his appointment.

She told reporters it was "an indispensable role in aligning all US government foreign assistance with the president's priorities."

Marocco wrote that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will "effective immediately" designate Lewin as deputy administrator for policy and programs at USAID and as chief operating officer.

Legal barriers

The move comes as multiple proposals circulate among State Department and USAID officials on what foreign assistance programmes to save and how to carry them out as the Trump administration works to scrap the aid and development agency.

Marocco's email was sent the same day a federal judge ruled that Musk and DOGE likely lacked constitutional authority to help the Trump administration shut down State Department and USAID foreign assistance, fire staffers and terminate humanitarian and development contracts.

In a ruling on Tuesday, US District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland indefinitely blocked DOGE from making further cuts to the agency.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by USAID employees and contractors, who argued that Musk and DOGE are wielding power that the Constitution reserves only for those who win elections or are confirmed by the Senate.

Their lawyers said the ruling "effectively halts or reverses" many of the steps taken to dismantle the agency.

The lawsuit was aimed specifically at DOGE, and the ruling suggested that similar moves from designated officials at USAID would not necessarily run afoul of the Constitution in the same way.