If you want peace, prepare for DOGE
March 18, 2025 7:31 AM Subscribe
The United States Institute of Peace—a private, non-profit NGO created by the Reagan Administration dedicated to non-violent conflict resolution and prevention, and which receives funding from various US government and outside sources—has become the latest victim of Musk's chainsaw.
After successfully holding off DOGE and the FBI last Friday and early Monday, Trump apparatchiks successfully "broke in" to the USIP late yesterday, reportedly with assistance from the DC Police Department (MPD) after a boardroom coup replaced the USIP leadership with Trump-friendly appointees.
Employees' laptops went into lockdown mode several hours after DOGE entered the building, although it was not clear as of early Tuesday whether the USIP's IT systems had been compromised.
After successfully holding off DOGE and the FBI last Friday and early Monday, Trump apparatchiks successfully "broke in" to the USIP late yesterday, reportedly with assistance from the DC Police Department (MPD) after a boardroom coup replaced the USIP leadership with Trump-friendly appointees.
Employees' laptops went into lockdown mode several hours after DOGE entered the building, although it was not clear as of early Tuesday whether the USIP's IT systems had been compromised.
As best I can tell the legality here hinges on whether Trump had the authority to fire the board.
Legality? How quaint.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:19 AM on March 18 [28 favorites]
Legality? How quaint.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:19 AM on March 18 [28 favorites]
There aren't laws that can contain them anymore.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:28 AM on March 18 [7 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:28 AM on March 18 [7 favorites]
There aren't laws that can contain them anymore.
There are laws. It's just that they also can elect not to enforce the laws or the decisions made by the judiciary.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 8:41 AM on March 18 [1 favorite]
There are laws. It's just that they also can elect not to enforce the laws or the decisions made by the judiciary.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 8:41 AM on March 18 [1 favorite]
The legality doesn't actually depend on whether Trump had the ability to fire the board. When there's a dispute over ownership of a building, the police usually let the courts sort it out. In this case, the police acted as enforcers for Trump. That's a huge fucking problem.
posted by FutureExpatCorb at 8:44 AM on March 18 [52 favorites]
posted by FutureExpatCorb at 8:44 AM on March 18 [52 favorites]
There are laws. It's just that they also can elect not to enforce the laws or the decisions made by the judiciary.
What did you think I was saying? I was saying that.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:45 AM on March 18 [6 favorites]
What did you think I was saying? I was saying that.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:45 AM on March 18 [6 favorites]
This is an agency not under the purview of the executive branch, correct? So they are expanding out from the executive branch to whatever agencies they want?
posted by subdee at 8:46 AM on March 18 [5 favorites]
posted by subdee at 8:46 AM on March 18 [5 favorites]
This is an agency not under the purview of the executive branch, correct?
It's indirectly under the purview of the executive branch, in that there are standing board members that are part of the cabinet (e.g. the secretaries of state and defense) and the president nominates the remaining members of the board and can remove them under certain circumstances. It's basically a non-profit corporation whose corporate charter is written into federal statute.
Its budget is also only $55 million, or approximately 0.0008% of the federal budget. It is beyond a rounding error. Further, a majority of the board was already Republican; it was not some hotbed of liberalism. This is about cementing total control and personal loyalty to Trump and demonstrating that, if push comes to shove, state-sponsored violence will be used to ensure it.
posted by jedicus at 9:12 AM on March 18 [20 favorites]
It's indirectly under the purview of the executive branch, in that there are standing board members that are part of the cabinet (e.g. the secretaries of state and defense) and the president nominates the remaining members of the board and can remove them under certain circumstances. It's basically a non-profit corporation whose corporate charter is written into federal statute.
Its budget is also only $55 million, or approximately 0.0008% of the federal budget. It is beyond a rounding error. Further, a majority of the board was already Republican; it was not some hotbed of liberalism. This is about cementing total control and personal loyalty to Trump and demonstrating that, if push comes to shove, state-sponsored violence will be used to ensure it.
posted by jedicus at 9:12 AM on March 18 [20 favorites]
Laws? Where we're going we won't need laws.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:17 AM on March 18 [3 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 9:17 AM on March 18 [3 favorites]
There aren't laws that can contain them anymore.
Well there's the laws of physics. In particular I am thinking of gravity, weight, velocity, and shearing force of an angled metal blade dropped from a height of about six feet.
posted by JohnFromGR at 9:23 AM on March 18 [33 favorites]
Well there's the laws of physics. In particular I am thinking of gravity, weight, velocity, and shearing force of an angled metal blade dropped from a height of about six feet.
posted by JohnFromGR at 9:23 AM on March 18 [33 favorites]
Can't really blame the DC cops, if they resist, they may not get funding and the feds may take over the city.
Oh wait.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 9:42 AM on March 18 [5 favorites]
Oh wait.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 9:42 AM on March 18 [5 favorites]
All those Republicans on the board…leopards had a field day.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 10:20 AM on March 18 [2 favorites]
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 10:20 AM on March 18 [2 favorites]
Every morning they wake up and ask themselves "who are the best people we can hurt the most today?"
posted by gottabefunky at 10:43 AM on March 18 [10 favorites]
posted by gottabefunky at 10:43 AM on March 18 [10 favorites]
Mod note:Tagged as USPolitics
I disagree. What is going on now is World Politics -- a historic Constitutional crisis that effects everyone on the planet. Like the end of USAID and it's effect on the spread of AIDS and Ebola in Africa, for example. Trump is in full rolling coup mode and what he is doing extends far outside our national borders. These are end times.
posted by y2karl at 11:14 AM on March 18 [13 favorites]
I disagree. What is going on now is World Politics -- a historic Constitutional crisis that effects everyone on the planet. Like the end of USAID and it's effect on the spread of AIDS and Ebola in Africa, for example. Trump is in full rolling coup mode and what he is doing extends far outside our national borders. These are end times.
posted by y2karl at 11:14 AM on March 18 [13 favorites]
y2karl - I assume it is so that those who use the US politics filter don't get this in their feed...
posted by deeker at 12:50 PM on March 18 [7 favorites]
posted by deeker at 12:50 PM on March 18 [7 favorites]
Picture the future as a giant Teletubbie foot
eh-ohing on a human face.
posted by y2karl at 12:55 PM on March 18 [3 favorites]
eh-ohing on a human face.
posted by y2karl at 12:55 PM on March 18 [3 favorites]
...forever
posted by y2karl at 1:22 PM on March 18 [1 favorite]
posted by y2karl at 1:22 PM on March 18 [1 favorite]
Sounds like someone has seen Putin's footage of Trump.
posted by biffa at 1:49 PM on March 18 [1 favorite]
posted by biffa at 1:49 PM on March 18 [1 favorite]
‘Move Fast’ : Inside Team Trump’s Furious Defiance of the Courts
posted by jeffburdges at 3:09 PM on March 18 [1 favorite]
posted by jeffburdges at 3:09 PM on March 18 [1 favorite]
I disagree. What is going on now is World Politics -- a historic Constitutional crisis that effects everyone on the planet. Like the end of USAID and it's effect on the spread of AIDS and Ebola in Africa, for example. Trump is in full rolling coup mode and what he is doing extends far outside our national borders. These are end times.
I can acknowledge some of this but there's a fair whack of American exceptionalism living in your head driving this thinking. Many people's end times have come and gone over the past decades, often driven by the policy and actions of the US. Did you feel those end times as your own? Why should the rest of the world feel yours in this way?
More prosaically, please keep USPolitics on US politics.
posted by deadwax at 3:37 PM on March 18 [13 favorites]
I can acknowledge some of this but there's a fair whack of American exceptionalism living in your head driving this thinking. Many people's end times have come and gone over the past decades, often driven by the policy and actions of the US. Did you feel those end times as your own? Why should the rest of the world feel yours in this way?
More prosaically, please keep USPolitics on US politics.
posted by deadwax at 3:37 PM on March 18 [13 favorites]
Musk's team had private security and FBI with them, the DC police chose to defer to the FBI agents.
It sounds slightly less apocalyptic this way but still very bad ...
posted by subdee at 8:37 PM on March 18
It sounds slightly less apocalyptic this way but still very bad ...
posted by subdee at 8:37 PM on March 18
An organization started by a warmonger and led by US warmongers that only operates in areas that the US has a military interest in calling itself the Peace Institute is a great joke. The next batch of warmongers coming along and smashing the whole thing up because it's all a little too subtle for them to get is the perfect punchline.
posted by jy4m at 7:01 AM on March 19 [3 favorites]
posted by jy4m at 7:01 AM on March 19 [3 favorites]
Musk's team had private security and FBI with them, the DC police chose to defer to the FBI agents.
Whatever your feelings are about the USIP, the details in this article about InterCon's alleged role in this vandalism are horrifying. Similar details are reported in The Hill.
posted by JDC8 at 2:04 PM on March 19 [4 favorites]
An organization started by a warmonger and led by US warmongers that only operates in areas that the US has a military interes
That's quite a hot take. Have you bothered to actually do any research into what the USIP actually does? Because it's a lot more complicated and far more ambiguous than that characterization.
posted by aspersioncast at 2:30 PM on March 19 [4 favorites]
That's quite a hot take. Have you bothered to actually do any research into what the USIP actually does? Because it's a lot more complicated and far more ambiguous than that characterization.
posted by aspersioncast at 2:30 PM on March 19 [4 favorites]
it's becoming increasingly clear that MPD is just a bunch of thugs at this point, working for whoever is in the white house and doesn't actually serve the people of DC.
Feels like every day I repeat this mantra in my head: "Laws are threats made by the dominant socioeconomic ethnic group in a given nation. It's just a promise of violence that's enacted and police are basically just an occupying army... You guys wanna make some bacon?"
posted by numaner at 10:31 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]
Feels like every day I repeat this mantra in my head: "Laws are threats made by the dominant socioeconomic ethnic group in a given nation. It's just a promise of violence that's enacted and police are basically just an occupying army... You guys wanna make some bacon?"
posted by numaner at 10:31 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]
There's a little more complexity to DC policing than calling them "a bunch of thugs." DC Metro are the city police of a city without a state, and they tend to be protective of the non-federal part of DC because of how much DC gets pushed around—yes, the license plates there have "Taxation without Representation" as their slogan, in the same ways that Pennsylvania has "Keystone State" and Florida has "Sunshine State." But DC Metro shares jurisdiction with the national Park Police, uniformed Secret Service, and Capitol Police, and of those four divisions, DC Metro tend to be the most friendly and neighborhood-oriented, and protective of residents and local businesses. Capitol police are decent and friendly if you see them frequently enough, but they tend to be impatient with tourists sometimes. From past experiences, I try to avoid Park Police and uniformed Secret Service.
posted by vitia at 8:05 PM on March 20
posted by vitia at 8:05 PM on March 20
I've seen some really troubling commentary saying that the Fed is similarly set up like this, and that if they can take over USIP, they could similarly take over the Fed.
posted by FutureExpatCorb at 8:46 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]
posted by FutureExpatCorb at 8:46 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]
I guess they won't need the USIP if Elon Musk Is Said To Be Getting The War Plan Against China.
posted by phigmov at 10:59 AM on March 22 [1 favorite]
posted by phigmov at 10:59 AM on March 22 [1 favorite]
Why Did Elon Musk Go After Bunkers Full of Seeds?
posted by jeffburdges at 3:15 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
posted by jeffburdges at 3:15 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
I didn't want to threadsit, but the USIP thing just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
From people I have talked to who worked there, they were as mystified as anyone as to why Trump targeted them, and why Musk's DOGE brownshirts seemed to have a particular chip on their shoulder. (The DOGE lackeys went so far as to tear down the USIP logo and name from the walls of building lobby, then destroyed the lettering so it couldn't be re-hung.)
The going theory among current and former employees is that it may not be about USIP's mission (which is not especially left-leaning) at all... it may be about real estate.
It happens that the USIP headquarters sits on a rather nice parcel of land in downtown DC. And while the land technically belongs to the US Government, it was apparently long-term leased to USIP, who built the building atop it at its own expense. Meaning that if you wanted to sell off or give the land to a political crony to let them develop a hotel/casino/prison/presidential library/whatever, USIP needed to be eliminated first.
Do we know that this was the actual motive? No. There's no smoking gun; both DOGE and Trump's motives are as opaque and bizarre as ever. But it does seem to fit the available evidence: Trump has a noted love for urban real estate, and may have seen the government-owned land as his to dispose of however he saw fit. The boardroom coup and resulting DOGE wrecking make sense in a cartoon-villain sort of way, like Judge Doom destroying ToonTown, largely because it had the misfortune of being in the way.
posted by Kadin2048 at 6:58 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
From people I have talked to who worked there, they were as mystified as anyone as to why Trump targeted them, and why Musk's DOGE brownshirts seemed to have a particular chip on their shoulder. (The DOGE lackeys went so far as to tear down the USIP logo and name from the walls of building lobby, then destroyed the lettering so it couldn't be re-hung.)
The going theory among current and former employees is that it may not be about USIP's mission (which is not especially left-leaning) at all... it may be about real estate.
It happens that the USIP headquarters sits on a rather nice parcel of land in downtown DC. And while the land technically belongs to the US Government, it was apparently long-term leased to USIP, who built the building atop it at its own expense. Meaning that if you wanted to sell off or give the land to a political crony to let them develop a hotel/casino/prison/presidential library/whatever, USIP needed to be eliminated first.
Do we know that this was the actual motive? No. There's no smoking gun; both DOGE and Trump's motives are as opaque and bizarre as ever. But it does seem to fit the available evidence: Trump has a noted love for urban real estate, and may have seen the government-owned land as his to dispose of however he saw fit. The boardroom coup and resulting DOGE wrecking make sense in a cartoon-villain sort of way, like Judge Doom destroying ToonTown, largely because it had the misfortune of being in the way.
posted by Kadin2048 at 6:58 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
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