This is crazy.
You almost have to admire the audacity of these bureaucrats. Almost. What happened at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) last week wasn’t just some minor HR dispute—it was a full-blown, temper-tantrum-fueled attempt at bureaucratic insurrection.
George Moose, the outgoing USIP president, decided that being fired wasn’t going to stop him from clinging to his office like a bad houseguest who refuses to leave. His replacement, Kenneth Jackson, showed up on Friday, ready to assume his duties, only to find that Moose had locked the doors and put the entire building on what can only be described as toddler-level lockdown.
The level of pettiness here is astounding. According to sources, Moose and his staff didn’t just refuse to leave; they shut down the phone lines, cut off the internet, disabled the elevators, and even resorted to using walkie-talkies like they were staging some kind of resistance movement. All of this at a taxpayer-funded institution that, ironically enough, is supposed to promote international peace. Apparently, they don’t practice what they preach when it comes to peaceful transitions of power.
By Monday, Jackson had to get the Metropolitan Police Department involved just to enter the building, where he found employees skulking around like extras in a low-budget spy thriller. Meanwhile, Moose, according to reports, had literally barricaded himself in his office, refusing to leave until the police arrived to escort him out. But don’t worry, folks—he later assured the media that he totally wasn’t barricaded in. No, he was just… voluntarily refusing to leave for three hours while the cops stood outside his door. Completely normal behavior.
What’s even more revealing is that this wasn’t some last-minute act of defiance. Internal emails show that USIP leadership had been planning for weeks on how to block the Trump administration from implementing changes. Staff were reportedly given photos of Jackson and his team so they could recognize them and refuse them entry. Security guards were instructed to screen incoming personnel and keep out “external entities requesting access to USIP.” So much for the whole “we’re an independent nonprofit” excuse—these people were acting like a rogue government agency trying to secede from reality.
The White House has made it clear that this nonsense isn’t going to fly. Anna Kelly, the White House deputy press secretary, didn’t mince words when she called out Moose and his team for attempting to hold a federally funded agency hostage. And let’s be real—this isn’t just about one disgruntled bureaucrat who didn’t want to give up his cushy office. This is a perfect example of the entrenched, unaccountable government class that thinks it has more authority than the people actually elected to run the country.
Moose, of course, played the victim card, claiming that this was an “illegal takeover” by the executive branch. Funny—last time we checked, the President has the authority to appoint leadership at agencies funded by taxpayer dollars, and when an administration lawfully removes someone from their position, that’s not a “takeover,” that’s called enforcing the chain of command. The only person acting unlawfully here was Moose, who not only refused to leave but allegedly even tried to fire USIP’s private security team when they followed orders and allowed Jackson to enter.
This was a political stunt, pure and simple. The deep state, or in this case, the deep nonprofit, thinks it can defy a duly elected administration whenever it doesn’t like the policies being implemented. But the truth is, these bureaucrats aren’t entitled to their jobs. They work for the American people, and when they’re shown the door, they need to walk through it—not barricade themselves inside and cut the phone lines like they’re in some sort of hostage negotiation.
This saga perfectly encapsulates why draining the swamp is such an uphill battle. These people don’t see themselves as public servants; they see themselves as rulers, untouchable and beyond accountability. But Moose learned the hard way that reality doesn’t work like that. If only the rest of Washington would take the hint.
