The U.S. Institute of Peace was the scene of a dramatic standoff between a Department of Government Efficiency team and Institute members on Monday. Washington, D.C., police attended the scene after being contacted both by USIP staff and the DOGE team on site.
Former diplomat and President and CEO of USIP George Moose told reporters, "D.C. police showed up at my office and said it is time for you to go." USIP is a think tank funded by Congress.
NPR spoke to him on the steps of the Institute just across from the State Department during the daylong standoff on Monday.
Some members of DOGE, as the Elon Musk efficiency team is known, tried several times to get inside to install a new president.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly posted on X Monday evening, along with a screenshot of a resolution from USIP's three remaining board members appointing Kenneth Jackson USIP's acting president on March 14.
Moose was fired last week along with most of the board members. According to USIP's website, the bipartisan board of directors is composed of 12 members plus four "ex-officio" members including the U.S. secretaries of State and Defense.
But Moose and the USIP are challenging the administration in court. He was held up in his office for some time on Monday before being escorted out by police. Moose called it a sad day.
"This building really was — it was built not just as a platform for the work that we do. It was built as a symbol of the aspiration of the American people to be peace builders in the world. That's why it is as beautiful as it is," Moose said.
"I have to believe that in the long term, that purpose, that mission will be reaffirmed and that we will, in one way or another, be allowed to continue."
And that mission he told reporters, should be in line with what the Trump administration wants, including coming up with ideas to resolve conflicts and promote peace.
Moose, like many of the employees at USIP, is a retired diplomat. He spent much of his career in Africa and says he's shocked by the way the Trump administration has been dismantling the U.S. aid agency and other parts of America's soft power.
DOGE posted a statement on social media late Monday claiming that "Mr. Moose denied lawful access to Kenneth Jackson, the Acting USIP President."
DOGE staff were previously refused access to the building on Friday. In a statement on Saturday, Gonzalo Gallegos, a USIP spokesperson, said the DOGE staff were informed of the nonprofit's "private and independent status as a non-executive branch agency."
The administration continues to claim this is all about saving money. But a lawyer for USIP claims their actions are illegal. The president can fire a board member, but it has to have a reason to do so and the USIP is not a government agency.
USIP's lawyer George Foote told NPR that the building was "seized by force, by police officers with guns acting under the authority of a resolution that we are going to get a court to declare invalid."
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