Trump administration targets US Institute of Peace with mass Friday firings

(CNN) — Employees at the United States Institute of Peace received termination letters Friday evening as the Trump administration continues to reimagine the role of the US abroad and dramatically dismantle key parts of the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency.

A vast majority of the non-profit’s staff received termination notices Friday evening, said a source who was terminated and who requested anonymity to speak freely without jeopardizing their severance package.

“Everyone received a personal letter that outlined that they were terminated as of March 28 and that health care would end March 31,” the source said, noting that employees would be paid for work done through Friday, as well as for any remaining vacation time.

The institute, which was founded during the Reagan administration, “promotes research, policy analysis, education, and training on international peace and conflict resolution in an effort to prevent and resolve violent conflicts, and to promote post-conflict stability,” according to a description on usa.gov. Its official website has been taken down.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February taking aim at the Institute of Peace, an effort, the order said, to “dramatically reduce the size of the Federal Government, while increasing its accountability to the American people.”

George Foote, who was counsel to the US Institute of Peace until he was dismissed by DOGE, is now involved in litigation aimed at convincing a judge to recognize that the US government and DOGE’s efforts to dismiss top officials at the organization is illegal.

The suit was filed in DC District Court after DOGE personnel, accompanied by DC police officers, gained access to USIP’s building earlier this month after originally being turned away.

Foote told CNN in a phone interview on Saturday that all papers in the case will be filed by April 25. From there, the judge can either decide the case or call for a hearing, which would be held the week of April 28.

The source said that while the mass firing, first reported by CBS News, was not entirely unexpected, it was disappointing.

“It’s obviously disappointing and a bit of a contradiction for a president who wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Every olive branch was extended to the president and his representatives that we wanted to work with this administration like we worked with seven prior – including his own during his first administration,” the source said.

Trump himself has expressed hope that he be remembered as a “peacemaker.”

“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier,” he said in his inaugural address.

Unlike the administration’s efforts to slash government agencies such as the US Agency for International Development, the US Institute of Peace is an independent, non-profit organization that receives its $55 million in annual funding through Congress, meaning its staffers are not subject to the protections afforded to federal workers. Between 50 and 75 of its employees worked overseas as of Friday, per Foote.

“Peace is an ongoing process, and there’s no way a $55 million-a-year investment is going to bring peace to the world, but they do an awful lot with that $55 million,” Foote said.

It also has a nearly $80 million endowment, he said. It is unclear what would happen to that endowment funding, as well as the institute’s headquarters in Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, which is often rented for large-scale parties and weddings.

Asked for comment, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told CNN, “Taxpayers don’t want to spend $50 million per year on a publicly-funded ‘research institute’ that has failed to deliver peace. President Trump ended the era of forever wars and established peace in his first term, and he is carrying out his mandate to eliminate bloat and save taxpayer dollars.”

Foote pointed to the institute’s work advising the National Security Council about policy issues and a senior military advisers group that discusses peace-building techniques to prevent wars. He also noted the institute’s research on conflict minerals in Africa, its fight against Chinese influence on those critical minerals, its human trafficking studies in Cambodia, and its peace-building work in Papua New Guinea, among other efforts.

There are five carved doves in the foyer at USIP headquarters, Foote said, each bearing the name of a staff member who died in a conflict zone.

“Ginny Bouvier is one of them. Ginny was in the jungles of Colombia – she contracted a disease down there. She died of it. We flew her home, but she passed away at Georgetown Hospital,” he said.

Foote continued, “That’s the kind of work that people of USIP have done. These are not faceless bureaucrats. They’re not people just living on the public dime.
They’re not bloat or waste. They are bringing peace to the world and preventing the need for American military intervention and making the world and country safe for American military, American corporations, American citizens.”

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.

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