DOGE gains access to US Institute of Peace after Trump administration overhauls board

Personnel from the Department of Government Efficiency, accompanied by DC police officers, gained access to the US Institute of Peace Monday after being turned away last week.

Personnel from the Department of Government Efficiency, accompanied by DC police officers, gained access to the US Institute of Peace Monday after being turned away last week. The dramatic escalation follows the Trump administration’s Friday gutting of the organization’s board and tees up another court fight between the administration and an independent organization. “DOGE has broken into our building,” acting USIP president George Moose, whom the Trump administration said has been fired from the role, said in a statement Monday. The administration fired most of USIP’s board on Friday and its three remaining members – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Defense University President Peter Garvin – said they were installing Kenneth Jackson as acting USIP president. Jackson was among the personnel who entered the building on Monday, according to the institute’s chief security officer. USIP does not see that appointment as legal. The institute, which works to resolve conflict, is not a federal agency. It was created by Congress as a nonpartisan, independent body in 1984, and USIP owns and manages its headquarters. According to USIP’s chief security officer Colin O’Brien, the organization on Monday called the DC Metropolitan Police after former security contractors, whose contracts were suspended Sunday, entered the building without permission.