Members of co-President Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency sent FBI agents and Metropolitan Police Department officers to forcibly remove the leader of the U.S. Institute of Peace from its headquarters on Monday night, a naked attempt to violate the law and shut down an independent organization that was created by Congress.
According to The New York Times, 28-year-old tech bro Nate Cavanaugh, an unidentified woman carrying an expensive designer purse, and Kenneth Jackson, a state department official whom President Donald Trump tried to install as the organization's leader, were seen trying to gain access to the USIP building earlier on Monday before they were turned away.
The trio then returned with FBI agents and police officers to forcibly remove USIP Acting President George Moose and other members of the organization that Trump tried to fire.
“DOGE just came into the building—they’re inside the building—they’re bringing the F.B.I. and brought a bunch of D.C. police,” Sophia Lin, a USIP lawyer, told the New York Times in a telephone interview as she and other USIP officials were being removed from the building.
On Feb. 19, Trump signed an executive order that said the USIP—as well as three other organizations, including the organization that oversees the park at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco—must be "eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law" within 14 days, as Trump had deemed it an "unnecessary governmental entity."
However, the USIP argues that Trump has no jurisdiction over the organization, which according to its website is a "nonpartisan, independent organization dedicated to protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad."
Elon Musk
DOGE’s forcible takeover of the organization, using police enforcement, is a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s failing efforts to cut the federal budget by illegally shutting down agencies and firing tens of thousands of federal workers in a haphazard and chaotic manner that endangers Americans’ health, financial stability, and national security.
In an interview outside the building, Moose said what happened at USIP was illegal and that they plan to file a lawsuit to stop Trump's attempt to shut down the organization.
“Our statute is very clear about the status of this building and this institute,” Moose told reporters, according to The New York Times. “So what has happened here today is an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit corporation.”
Moose added that he believes the organization was targeted because “it was very clear that there was a desire on the part of the administration to dismantle a lot of what we call foreign assistance, and we are part of that family.”
This is not the first time Musk's DOGE goons have tried to forcibly shut down a congressionally funded entity.
On March 6, Cavanaugh—the same DOGE bro who tried to enter USIP—brought U.S. marshals to escort him into the U.S. African Development Foundation, another entity Trump tried to shutter in the Feb. 19 executive order.
The leaders of the USADF also resisted their removal and have since filed a lawsuit trying to prevent a Trump-appointed official from shutting down the organization.
“Without this court’s immediate intervention, defendants will continue their tactics and strong-arm their way into [the foundation],” USADF President Ward Brehm said in a lawsuit, adding that “within days, the damage that they do will be irreparable.”
Members of Congress are also trying to intervene to stop Trump and Musk from shuttering the USIP.
"I was at USIP tonight to conduct congressional oversight over DOGE’s break in. I spoke with Acting President & CEO Moose. USIP is an independent, non-profit entity and I will work to stop DOGE’s illegal power grab," Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia wrote in a post on X.
As Daily Kos has said before, the constitutional crisis is here.
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