Federal Appeals Court Ruling Sides With Trump’s Plans To Dismantle Institute Of Peace

A federal appeals court Friday lifted a lower court’s order that blocked President Donald Trump from moving forward with efforts to dismantle the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that Trump is likely to suffer “irreparable” harm if barred from fully exercising his executive authority over the Institute’s board. The court concluded that the Institute holds “substantial executive power,” meaning its board members are not protected from at-will removal by the president.

🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: D.C. Circuit hands Trump another win, granting stay pending appeal in case re President’s firing of Institute for Peace. 1/ pic.twitter.com/3yZ7yJ4Efj

— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) June 27, 2025

“As a general rule, the President may remove executive officers at will,” the three-judge panel wrote. They added that only agencies with quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial authority, and lacking substantial executive power, may qualify for special protections — standards the court said USIP does not meet.

Created by Congress, the USIP is a nonpartisan organization aimed at advancing U.S. interests through conflict prevention and peacebuilding worldwide.

Trump announced in March his intent to dissolve the agency and dismissed five board members following a visit from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who sought access to USIP’s computers and internal data. Upon auditing USIP, the DOGE team uncovered several findings. Despite USIP’s mission to promote peace, the agency was described as “the least peaceful” by the team, who discovered weapons in its armory and contracts totaling $130,000 awarded to a former Taliban member for unclear services. The team also found that USIP received approximately $55 million annually from Congress but did not return unspent funds. Instead, leftover money was swept into a private bank account outside of congressional oversight, which was then used for expenditures such as private jets and events at headquarters.

During an interview on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Musk and DOGE team members said that USIP was the agency that resisted their oversight efforts the most aggressively. (RELATED: DOGE Deposes US Institute Of Peace Leadership After Failing To Institute Peace)

The terminated board members challenged their removal, saying it violated constitutional limits and required congressional oversight. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell initially ruled in their favor, calling the takeover attempt a use of “brute force.”

After that decision, USIP temporarily regained control of its headquarters and began reviewing internal systems. The appeals court’s ruling now permits the Trump administration to resume efforts to restructure or eliminate the agency.