Musk’s DOGE Takeover Of Peace Institute Left Building With Rats And Roaches

The head of the United States Institute of Peace said that when Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency took over the organization’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, it led to “rats and roaches in the building.”

DOGE, an initiative tasked with making drastic cuts to federal spending, fired most of USIP’s board members and laid off nearly all of its U.S.-based employees. The nonprofit, which is funded by Congress, was established in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan to promote international peace.

On Monday, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with its dismantling of the organization, ruling that USIP was illegally taken over by DOGE through “blunt force, backed up by law enforcement officers from three separate local and federal agencies.”

In a sworn statement filed last week, USIP President and Chief Executive Officer George E. Moose, who has reclaimed his title after being fired during the takeover, said he learned the D.C. headquarters had “essentially been abandoned for many weeks” and were not “adequately protected or maintained” while DOGE was in charge.

Moose wrote that when he and his team returned to the building on May 21, they found that the only people on site were a “woefully insufficient” number of security guards and cleaning crew members.

Over the following days, his staff members documented the concerning condition DOGE had left the building in, citing “evidence of rats and roaches.”

Moose told the judge in his statement that “vermin were not a problem prior to March 17, 2025, when USIP was actively using and maintaining the building.”

In addition to the rodents and roaches, USIP staff reported other maintenance issues, including “water leaks, damage to the garage door, and missing ceiling tiles in multiple places in the building.” DOGE had also failed to maintain vehicle barriers or the building’s cooling tower, he said.

Moose also noted that “someone had scrawled graffiti on one of the outside spaces” in the days before he and his team regained control of the building.

He has since engaged a private security firm to guard the premises, and has taken over responsibility for the building’s maintenance.