Former USIP Lawyer on DOGE: ‘Brass Knuckles on an Authoritarian Fist’

George Foote still has vivid memories of the day operatives from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency arrived at the headquarters of the United States Institute of Peace. Th

e outside general counsel for USIP, he’s been part of the effort to keep the US government from seizing control of the organization. When

DOGE operatives arrived at the USIP offices in the spring they came in like a “strike team,” Foote told the audience at WIRED’s Big Interview event on Thursday in San Francisco. The DOGE t

eam, Foote said, left behind a “half-pound of weed”—more probably, a fellow panelist noted, a half-ounce—and ultimately seemed to have “no idea what to do with the place.” It was, Foote said, in

dicative of a lot of the work of DOGE, which “arrived as the brass knuckles on an authoritarian fist.” He added that he wasn’t su

re what Musk wanted to do with DOGE, “but he took it to a destructive level.” The Trump administration’s inter

est in the independent agency dates back to a February 19 executive order declaring the agency “unnecessary” and calling for it to be eliminated. In March, the administration fired the

10 voting board members of the USIP, and according to court filings, tried to enter the headquarters but were turned away. In court documents, lawyers for the ag

ency detailed a series of attempts by DOGE to enter the $500 million building before its operatives eventually succeeded. Ultimately, a judge ruled that DOGE an

d the US government didn’t have the right to take control of USIP and its headquarters. Still, this week Trump’s name was instal