The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is an independent, non-profit, national institute devoted to peacebuilding, created in 1984 by a bipartisan group of members of Congress including two war veterans. Its board is appointed by the president, on the advice of the Senate, but the institute sits outside the executive branch. Its founders wanted to keep it separate from the State Department or White House so that its staffers would enjoy a degree of freedom in their research and advice that government officials would not have.
USIP's headquarters in Washington, DC, were paid for partly with private money. Its annual budget was around $55m, much of it spent on grants to charities. It held a $25m endowment, of which roughly $15m was donated privately. Its work extended beyond research into operational peacebuilding, including negotiating local peace deals in Iraq and Nigeria.
USIP's building sits at the north-west corner of the National Mall in Washington, DC. It is 14 years old. Five stone doves on the atrium wall memorialise staff members who died in the line of duty. Above them are inscribed words from Eleanor Roosevelt: "It isn't enough to talk about peace, one must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it."
On December 3rd 2025 Donald Trump had raised silver letters spelling "Donald J. Trump" affixed to the building's stone façade. The following day he hosted leaders from Africa's Great Lakes region there, where presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo affirmed a deal for economic co-operation signed by their foreign ministers at the White House in June. Trump called the building "brand new". George Foote, the institute's lawyer who is suing the administration to reverse the DOGE assault, has noted that USIP's budget was "one-half of 1% of 1%" of the $900bn defence budget.
On March 17th 2025 staffers from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took over the USIP building, dismantling signage and disabling computer systems. The institute's board and president, George Moose, a veteran diplomat, were summarily fired and forced out of the building at the behest of three different police agencies. A DOGE staffer then handed the building's keys to the federal government. Nearly all USIP staff were fired in late March.
On May 19th 2025 Judge Beryl Howell of the Washington, DC, district court declared the dissolution "null and void", ruling that it had been "effectuated by illegitimately-installed leaders who lacked legal authority to take these actions". The ruling implied that Mr Moose was once again president, the board reinstated, the building returned, and the endowment restored. Judge Howell argued that not everything funded by Congress is part of the executive branch, and that the legislature retains the right to restrict the president's power over certain institutions. When cleaners re-entered the building after the ruling, they found marijuana apparently thrown out by DOGE staffers.
The Heritage Foundation had criticised USIP in September 2024, arguing that its staff mostly donated to Democrats and that its work had expanded beyond its defence-adjacent research mandate into international development. Heritage called on Congress to restrict USIP's funding and hold hearings, but did not suggest the president could simply shut it down.
Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can.