EXCLUSIVE: Trump Renamed The Worst Of The Deep State After Himself — Now What Will It Do?

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took a chainsaw to the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) — now the agency sits nearly empty, with a new name and a big future.

The agency was seized in March by DOGE and its staffers removed. USIP made little news since, until Dec. 3 when the State Department renamed it after President Donald Trump.

DJT USIP Acting Director Darren Beattie told the Daily Caller in an exclusive interview how the agency will be revamped to best support the Trump administration. (RELATED: USAID Staff Given 15 Minutes To Collect Belongings, Warned Against Bringing Weapons)

“I’m very excited about using not only the space but the programmatic aspect of USIP to highlight and, where possible, to help to facilitate and incubate these peacemaking efforts,” Beattie told the Caller. “And it might be premature to say, but we are in talks with people who are thinking about using it to incubate peace deals in other parts of the world as well.”

(L-R) US President Donald Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize from Italian Fifa President Gianni Infantino during the draw for the 2026 FIFA Football World Cup taking place in the US, Canada and Mexico, at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, DC, on December 5, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)

Beattie added that in addition to helping facilitate peace deals, the agency is “closely integrated” with the State Department and will help serve the administration through its physical space.

Since the March takeover of the agency, the institute has been at the center of a lawsuit in which its former staff argue the president does not have authority over the branch. Beattie told the Caller that the outcome of that lawsuit will determine a lot about DJT USIP’s future — like the type of staff the agency can hire — but for now isn’t a major roadblock.

Beattie told the Caller that the institute currently has a small skeleton-like crew but that restaffing the agency to support its new mission is “premature.” Regardless, Beattie said he and those at the agency are ready to start using the building again to incubate peace deals. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Explores Criminal Charges Against Ousted USIP Mutineers) 

“We’re going to be much more streamlined now in this new iteration, and much more narrowly focused to advance those kinds of foreign policy goals of the administration,” Beattie said of their plans to hire new staff.

USIP was established by Congress in 1984. At the time of DOGE’s takeover, the agency’s website claimed its mission is to “prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad.” The website now says the agency serves to “support the Executive Branch in resolving violent conflict abroad.”

DOGE took over the institute citing leadership’s failure to comply with a Feb. 19 executive order to eliminate “non-statutory components and functions” of USIP and other government-funded entities. Eleven board members were removed. The remaining members appointed Trump ally Kenneth Jackson as acting director, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the Daily Caller News Foundation at the time.

US President Donald Trump (L) speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem on October 13, 2025.  (Photo by EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Kelly told the Caller that in addition to offering building space and facilitating peace deals, the USIP will work closely with the State Department “to advance America’s national interests and policies that support peace through strength.”

Peace has been a theme repeatedly touted by the president and his administration throughout his first year in office, especially following his peace deal in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas.

“I think this is a story of bringing an institution that was misaligned at best and in some cases, maybe nefarious at worst, in the previous administration, and bringing it back into the fold to serve the interests of the executive branch, in this case, the agenda of the Trump administration,” Beattie told the Caller.