By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-03-18 01:35:15 | Updated at 2025-03-18 05:21:12
3 hours ago
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency broke in to the nonprofit US Institute of Peace on Monday night as it continues to take a chainsaw to waste, fraud and abuse in Washington.
The organization's CEO, George Moose, said, 'DOGE has broken into our building' after having been turned away on Friday.
The U.S. Institute of Peace says on its website that it's a nonpartisan, independent organization 'dedicated to protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad.'
The nonprofit says it was created by Congress in 1984 as an 'independent nonprofit corporation,' and it does not meet U.S. Code definitions of 'government corporation,' 'government-controlled corporation' or 'independent establishment.'
The institute has been in DOGE's crosshairs after a February 19 executive order, titled Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, called for the 'dramatic' downsizing of the federal government.
The breach comes despite protests from the nonprofit that it is not part of the executive branch and is instead an independent agency.
Police cars were outside the Washington building Monday evening, a senior U.S. Institute of Peace official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
It was not immediately clear what the DOGE staffers were doing or looking for in the nonprofit's building, which is across the street from the State Department in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency broke in to the nonprofit US Institute of Peace on Monday night as it continues to take a chainsaw to waste, fraud and abuse in Washington
It was not immediately clear what the DOGE staffers were doing or looking for in the nonprofit's building, which is across the street from the State Department in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood
President Donald Trump went after the organization and a few others in a Feb. 19 executive order that aims to shrink the size of the federal government.
The order also targeted the Inter-American Foundation, the United States African Development Foundation, and The Presidio Trust, and said they should be 'eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,' the outlet reported.
The administration has since moved to fire and cancel programs at some of those organizations.
The African Development Foundation, which also unsuccessfully tried to keep DOGE staff from entering its offices in Washington, went to court, but a federal judge ruled last week that removing most grants and most staff would be legal.
The president of the Inter-American Foundation sued Monday to block her firing in February by the Trump administration.
DOGE has expressed interest in the U.S. Institute of Peace for weeks but has been rebuffed by lawyers who argued that the institute's status protected it from the kind of reorganization that is occurring in other federal agencies.
On Friday, DOGE members arrived with two FBI agents, who left after the institute's lawyer told them of USIP's 'private and independent status,' the organization said in a statement.
Musk's DOGE team estimated the cuts savings to have reached $55 billion in a message from the official doge.gov website, citing data since February 17.
President Donald Trump went after the organization and a few others in a Feb. 19 executive order that aims to shrink the size of the federal government. The order also targeted the Inter-American Foundation, the United States African Development Foundation, and The Presidio Trust which overseas presidio National Park (pictured)
Musk's DOGE team estimated the cuts savings to have reached $55 billion in a message from the official doge.gov website
The efforts to reduce government waste continue to capture the headlines as Democrats and government workers are protesting in the streets about the cuts.
Trump has defended Musk's efforts, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity that they talk frequently about the efforts by Democrats and the media to drive them apart.
'It's obvious, they're so bad at it. I used to think they were good at it but they're bad at it, because if they were good at I wouldn't be president,' he said.
Last month, the White House clarified in court papers that Musk’s title was ‘senior adviser to the president’ and that he is 'not the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator.'
‘In his role as senior advisor to the president, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors,’ the court filing noted, adding that he had ‘no actual or formal authority’ to make government decisions by himself.
Trump has endorsed Musk's work as a result of his election mandate to cut government spending and reduce the federal workforce.
‘We got elected to, among other things, find all of this fraud, abuse, all of this horrible stuff going on,’ he said.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment.
