US Institute of Peace headquarters transferred to Labor Department

In one of his first moves as president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, Nate Cavanaugh — a 28-year-old working with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — is ridding the organization of its Washington, D.C. headquarters. “I have determined that USIP no longer needs the property,” wrote Cavanaugh in an undated letter to the U.S. General Services Administration, the entity that manages federal buildings. The letter came after employees across USIP received termination notices on Friday, with workers given until April 7 to clear out their desks. There were 300 staff employed at USIP, an independent nonprofit organization funded primarily by Congress — and as of Friday night, nearly every one of those staff members have been terminated. “There’s no question, the analogy of a bull in a China shop comes to mind,” said U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who presided over a court hearing on the topic on Tuesday. “Which is indiscriminate destruction that’s very hard to put it all back together.” Despite that, Howell cleared the way for the continued dismantling of USIP, denying the institute’s motion to suspend the transfer on Tuesday night. In part, that’s because the damage was already done, “rendering plaintiffs’ requested relief moot.” It was something both the judge and USIP itself realized only at the proceeding, when the government’s lawyer, Brian Hudak, stated that the transfer of USIP’s building was going to be given to the Department of Labor. “They need more space?” asked Howell, adding that the Department of Labor already had a large office near the courthouse. Hudak shrugged and stated he did not know. In 2004, Congress authorized $100 million to construct USIP’s headquarters, while another $86 million was raised by the institute itself. For nearly 15 years, the building has been a landmark in the American capital — its gleaming glass facade sits at the edge of the city’s National Mall; its domed rooftop is just steps from the iconic Lincoln Memorial. But in his letter to GSA, Cavanaugh stated the headquarters should be returned to the government for three reasons: the first, that the cost of maintaining USIP’s property was significant — $3.9 million for maintenance in 2024 alone; the second, that USIP had “strayed far from its original mandate” and that without a costly headquarters, the organization would “refocus its efforts on discrete responsibilities; and the third, that President Donald Trump had ordered USIP to reduce its operations to the minimum. “USIP is capable of ‘advanc[ing] the history, science, art, and practice of international peace and the resolution of conflicts among nations without the use of violence’ without the ownership of a large and expensive building,” Cavanaugh wrote in the letter. By Thursday, a request for the property’s transfer had been sent to GSA, stating that doing so was a “priority of the Trump-Vance Administration.” By Saturday, Trump appointee Russell Vought — the director of the White House budget office — approved GSA’s request to take in USIP’s headquarters with a no-cost reimbursement. And by Monday, USIP had filed a motion to pause the transfer, with no party but the government realizing the process had already been solidified until Tuesday’s hearing. Hudak stated that two of three buckets were now taken over by GSA: the building, and the property within the building, from desks to laptops to institutional files, systems, and information. When asked whether the institute’s $80 million endowment — $15 million of which included private donations, according to USIP’s lawyer Andrew Goldfarb — had been transferred to GSA, Hodak told the judge that he did not know. “I’m not clear whether that is still at the institute or somewhere else,” he said, referring to the endowment. Also unclear to the judge — and seemingly, to both the government’s lawyers and USIP’s — was why Cavanaugh had been appointed to lead the institution. For decades, the institute has worked to end global conflict, briefing Congress, equipping diplomats, and training peace negotiators to support U.S. interests abroad. But Cavanaugh, who was also a key player in the dismantling of the U.S. African Development Foundation, seems to have no experience in foreign affairs, government, or peacebuilding. When asked whether Cavanaugh had knowledge in those areas, Hudak said he knew the 28-year-old was a “successful entrepreneur,” but wasn’t aware of anything else regarding his professional background. According to reporting from Newsweek, Cavanaugh’s career has focused on technology startups. Cavanaugh was appointed president of USIP less than two weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and President of the National Defense University Peter Garvin slashed every board member but themselves from the institution. Soon after, the three stripped USIP President George Moose of his title — replacing him with Kenneth Jackson, who is also serving as USAID’s deputy administrator for management and resources, and USAID’s chief financial officer. Jackson lasted less than two weeks before Cavanaugh took his place. Despite that, Howell declined to make an immediate decision on whether the transfer of USIP’s headquarters was legal. She denied the motion later that night, and a more comprehensive decision — which will determine whether the Trump administration is able to dissolve the 41-year-old institution — is expected by the end of April. “Any government institution is most likely to be the opposite of its name,” tweeted Elon Musk, the billionaire at the helm of DOGE, at 1:35 a.m. ET Tuesday morning. Musk had retweeted a post from amuse, a digital platform that describes itself as “Conservative Headlines w/ a Dash of Satire and Ai” that stated the USIP had “funded Taliban and Iraqi leaders.” The post, which was shared on the social media platform Musk owns, stated that “now-cancelled USIP contracts” included $132,000 to a former Taliban member and a “staggering” $1.3 million to the Al Tadhamun Iraqi League for Youth, a youth-led organization dedicated to combating violent extremism. It is not possible to verify either claim, as USIP’s website has been taken down. Update, April 2, 2025: This article has been updated to reflect the final decision of U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell.