WASHINGTON—White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed the former leadership of the United States Institute of Peace for “physically” barricading themselves in the building to prevent “political appointees of this administration” from assuming control.
Leavitt was responding to a question from The Daily Wire on the antics of USIP’s former leadership.
“We were made aware of this story by individuals at DOGE and Elon Musk’s team and also at the State Department who were unable to access this building,” Leavitt explained to The Daily Wire during a briefing at the White House on Wednesday.
“It became very clear that there was a concerted effort amongst the rogue bureaucrats at the United States Institute of Peace to actually physically barricade themselves, essentially, inside of the building to prevent political appointees of this administration who work at the direction of the president of the United States to get into the building.”
Leavitt noted that staff “barricaded the doors,” disabled “telephone lines, internet connections, and other IT infrastructure within the building.”
WATCH:
Two @realDailyWire questions at today’s briefing:
1. What’s going on at USIP, where (we reported) the former president refused to surrender his crown to DOGE?
2. Why hasn’t SCOTUS tracked down the Dobbs leaker, and does WH have interest in finding out who that leaker was? pic.twitter.com/2TDzHFZfAk
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) March 19, 2025
“They distributed fliers internally encouraging each other to basically prevent these individuals from accessing the building,” she added. “I use this to say, this is what DOGE and this is administration is facing. It is a resistance from bureaucrats who don’t want to see change in the city. President Trump was elected on an overwhelming mandate to seek change and implement change, and this is unacceptable behavior.”
Leavitt’s comments come after The Daily Wire published a report Tuesday evening highlighting the behavior of George Moose, the former head of USIP, who refused to allow DOGE officials to enter the building even though he had already been told that he was no longer the head of USIP.
When the new president, Kenneth Jackson, and the rest of his group were finally able to get into the building on Monday, they found things in turmoil. The shades were drawn, with white noise playing when they arrived. USIP employees were using walkie talkies to communicate within the building, according to the person who was with Jackson.
As of Tuesday, none of the phone systems in the building were working, nor were the elevators, and the internet was down, The Daily Wire reported.
