A dramatic purge and counter-purge at USAID played out in emails obtained by The Washington Post, as Trump’s pause on foreign aid upends humanitarian work around the world.

Dozens of senior career civil servants and foreign service officers have been placed on administrative leave and hundreds of contractors were fired or furloughed, sources said.

On Monday, top officials at U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) were put on leave for allegedly not abiding by President Trump's executive order to freeze much of U.S. foreign aid.

A purge of senior staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development appeared designed to silence any dissent over President Donald Trump's plans to dramatically reshape U.S. foreign aid, current and former USAID officials told Reuters.