DOGE fires nearly all staff at U.S. Institute of Peace headquarters

The Trump administration summarily fired the staff of the U.S. Institute of Peace late Friday night, less than two weeks after forcibly removing the congressionally funded organization’s president and installing in his place an agent of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service aimed at cutting the size of government.

USIP employees told The Washington Post that between 200 and 300 people – nearly the entirety of the institute’s headquarters staff – had been fired. The employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the Trump administration, said some employees were offered severance and one additional month of health insurance, in exchange for their signatures to waive their rights to sue.

The “Friday night massacre,” as the institute’s employees were terming the sweeping terminations, is the latest action in what has become a rapid fire of sudden cuts and hostile takeovers across government and quasi-government agencies over the past two months, implemented by Musk and DOGE, short for Department of Government Efficiency.

President Donald Trump has given Musk, the world’s richest man, broad authority to slash federal spending and fire tens of thousands of government workers, actions that are being contested in at least 10 court cases.

The institute has a total staff of about 600 people in offices worldwide. It is actively involved in negotiating peace deals and helping war-torn countries and regions to implement peace settlements and rebuild, including in the Philippines, sub-Saharan Africa and Ukraine.

“We put mediators in place to help stitch these communities back together,” said one employee. “So it does have a dramatic effect on violence on the ground immediately by just pulling these assets out.”

USIP leaders first sought to convince DOGE representatives that as a registered nonprofit, its personnel and programs were off-limits to Musk’s elimination campaign.

This month, employees of the 40-year-old USIP filed their own lawsuit, naming Trump, Musk and other DOGE operatives. The suit claims the executive branch had no authority to dismiss the leadership and staff of the institute because it was created by the legislative branch, nor could it take over USIP’s privately owned headquarters building.

Briefs in the case are scheduled during April, with a hearing near the end of the month.

A federal judge has condemned the process through which the administration seized control of USIP but has declined the petitioners’ motion for a temporary restraining order.

In the latest action, employees were instructed to sign a four-page letter ordering them to return all USIP property while agreeing to forgo all future claims against the institute. It ordered them not to disclose any terms of the agreement in exchange for one month of health insurance and a monthly stipend paid for an unspecified period. Those who refuse to sign, the letter said, will lose all benefits as of Monday.

The termination emails were riddled with mistakes – with employees’ names, the month of April and even the institute’s title misspelled in places – a telling sign of the rushed and haphazard nature of the operation, one terminated employee said.

“This letter is to inform you of a change in your employment status with United State Institute of Peace. Effective March 28, 2025, your employment with us will conclude,” wrote Mirna Rivas, USIP’s acting vice president for human resources, according to an email seen by the Post.

Kenneth Jackson, the DOGE agent appointed as USIP’s new president, had elevated Rivas to her position this month after firing the person previously in charge, employees said.

By Saturday morning, the terminated headquarters staff were already discussing filing a class-action lawsuit and were debating whether to sign their termination documents.

USIP’s building is privately owned by the institute and paid for through the institute’s endowment, two employees said, unlike its overseas programs and staff salaries, which are paid through federal funds appropriated by Congress. “So to me this seems like the most egregious violation of the law,” said one employee.

At least a handful of the institute’s employees were left in place for the time being, that employee said. That includes two human resources officials, including Rivas; two IT professionals; and a few others.

The latest moves left in place the institute’s overseas staff, which employees suspected was meant to meet a statutory requirement, particularly after the judge handling USIP’s lawsuit against the administration had expressed concern about the safety of its overseas employees.

It was also unclear how and whether the Trump administration planned to pay out USIP’s outside contracts, including for work already provided. “Obviously it would be illegal not to pay contractors for services rendered,” said the employee, while noting that the entire accounting and contracting teams were terminated.

Democrats have argued that DOGE lacks the constitutional authority to cancel funding and dissolve agencies and programs authorized by Congress. But the Trump administration has pushed forward in its efforts to aggressively disband or shrink operations, ranging from complete government departments to smaller nonprofits.

On Friday, the administration moved to formally collapse the U.S. Agency for International Development – an early target of Musk’s dismantling effort – with a notification to remaining employees that their positions will be eliminated and that residual functions will soon be folded into the State Department. The agency has annually delivered billions of dollars of lifesaving food, water anmedical aid to millions of people worldwide.