USAID employees clutching backpacks and wheeling suitcases full of their belongings trickled out of the now-shuttered agency's headquarters on Thursday morning after the Trump administration gave them 15 minutes to clear out.
Outside the building in downtown Washington, D.C., a line of demonstrators broke into applause and cheers as each employee left the building. Bouquets of flowers for employees stood nearby, alongside a sign reading, “You and your mission mattered!”
Samantha Power, USAID's administrator, greeted and hugged supporters down the line before she disappeared through the doors of the agency.
"When we come in the building, there are DHS officers who escort us, even though we've been coming into this building for our entire career," said Caitlin Harwood, a laid off USAID employee, as she exited the building. "It feels a bit sterile, a bit cold and a bit unfair, like everything else happening."