The Trump administration gutted the Institute of Peace of ‘rogue bureaucrats’ who held a tense standoff with a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team Monday that required police intervention, according to the White House.
‘Rogue bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies hostage,’ White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital Tuesday. ‘The Trump administration will enforce the president’s executive authority and ensure his agencies remain accountable to the American people.’
The Institute of Peace is an independent, national institution funded by Congress that was established in 1984 under the Reagan administration to promote peace and diplomacy on the international stage.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February regarding reducing the ‘scope of federal bureaucracy,’ which included specifically targeting the size of the Institute of Peace, as well as other government programs, such as the U.S. African Development Foundation and the Inter-American Foundation. That executive order followed one on Jan. 20 that established DOGE and directed agency leaders to establish their own DOGE teams within their respective agencies as part of the administration’s work to slim down the federal government.
The Institute of Peace, however, did not comply with the February executive order to reduce its size to the statutory minimum, leading to the Trump administration to fire 11 of its 14 board members last week, Fox Digital learned.
‘President Trump signed an executive order to reduce USIP to its statutory minimum,’ Kelly said. ‘After noncompliance, 11 board members were lawfully removed, and remaining board members appointed Kenneth Jackson acting president.’
The remaining board members include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Defense University President Peter Garvin, who on Friday fired acting president and CEO of the institute, George Moose.
Moose is a Clinton-era diplomat who served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The board replaced Moose with Kenneth Jackson, a State Department official, as acting president.
Jackson attempted to enter the Institute of Peace’s building in Washington, D.C., over the weekend, but was denied access by employees of the institute, an administration official told Fox News Digital.
The standoff hit a fever pitch Monday when Jackson and the DOGE team attempted again to gain entry to the building, while Moose, who already had been fired, accused them of breaking into the building and vowed to file a lawsuit. An administration official told Fox Digital that Moose ‘basically barricaded himself’ in his former office after he was fired.
‘Our statute is very clear about the status of this building and this institute,’ Moose told reporters Monday, 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.’
Jackson and the DOGE team held conversations with local police Monday, Fox Digital learned, as they worked to gain entry to the building. The Metropolitan Police Department reported that they received a call from the United States Attorney’s Office at about 4 p.m. that day regarding an ongoing incident at the institute, and reported to the scene.
‘MPD members met with the acting USIP President, and he provided the MPD members with documentation that he was the acting USIP President, with all powers delegated by the USIP Board of Directors to that role,’ the police department said in a news release of Monday’s incident. ‘The acting USIP President advised MPD members that there were unauthorized individuals inside of the building that were refusing to leave and refusing to provide him access to the facility.’
‘MPD members went to the USIP building and contacted an individual who allowed MPD members inside of the building,’ the release stated. ‘Once inside of the building, the acting USIP President requested that all the unauthorized individuals inside of the building leave.’
Jackson was able to enter the building upon police intervention. Moose left the building without incident and no arrests were made, police said.
‘Mr. Moose denied lawful access to Kenneth Jackson, the Acting USIP President (as approved by the USIP Board) @DCPoliceDept arrived onsite and escorted Mr. Jackson into the building. The only unlawful individual was Mr. Moose, who refused to comply, and even tried to fire USIP’s private security team when said security team went to give access to Mr. Jackson,’ DOGE’s X account said of the incident Monday.
An administration official told Fox Digital that the incident is a prime example of ‘rogue bureaucrats who have been (in government) for years and decades, who want to basically continue to dole out tax dollars unilaterally, with no oversight.’
The Institute of Peace filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Tuesday in the D.C. District Court, calling for ‘the immediate intervention of this Court to stop Defendants from completing the unlawful dismantling of the Institute and irreparably impairing Plaintiffs’ ability to perform their vital peace promotion and conflict resolution work as tasked by Congress.’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during Wednesday’s news conference that staffers physically barricaded themselves in the building.
‘There was a concerted effort amongst the rogue bureaucrats at the United States Institute of Peace to actually physically barricade themselves essentially inside of the building to prevent political appointees of this administration who work at the direction of the president of the United States to get into the building,’ she said.
‘They barricaded the doors. They also disabled telephone lines, internet connections and other IT infrastructure within the building. They distributed fliers internally, encouraging each other to basically prevent these individuals from accessing the building,’ Leavitt continued. ‘It’s a resistance from bureaucrats who don’t want to see change in this city. President Trump was elected on an overwhelming mandate to seek change and implement change. And this is unacceptable behavior.’
The standoff follows other ‘rogue bureaucrats’ at the U.S. African Development Foundation who barred another DOGE team and the acting head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Peter Marocco from gaining entry to that building March 12.
The DOGE team returned to USADF the next day accompanied by U.S. Marshals after the Department of Justice determined that they had a right to enter the building, a White House official told Fox News Digital at the time. USADF is an independent government agency established in 1980 by Congress to support ‘African-owned and African-led enterprises,’ according to its website.
USADF President Ward Brehm, who was fired by the administration last week, subsequently filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, asking a district court to bar the administration from removing him from his position. A federal judge denied Brehm’s request. Marocco was named as acting chairman of USADF’s board.
Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.