General Discussion

The building, with an estimated value of $500 million, has become the latest focal point in a weeks-long standoff between former institute board and staff and members of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. On March 14, the Trump administration fired the USIP’s 10 voting board members. When USIP staffers barred DOGE employees from entering their headquarters in Washington, DC, the DOGE team returned a few days later with a physical key they had gotten from a former security contractor.

The takeover was both physical and institutional. Former State Department official Kenneth Jackson was installed as USIP president, then replaced on March 25 by DOGE staffer Nate Cavanaugh, who had previously been assigned to the General Services Administration. By last Friday evening, most USIP staffers had received termination notices, effectively shuttering the agency.

The fight over the building came to light Monday through court documents in a lawsuit filed by former USIP staffers against Cavanaugh, DOGE, Donald Trump, and other members of the administration. They reveal not only that Cavanaugh recently moved to transfer the building to GSA, but that he planned to do so at no cost to the government.

In a letter included in the court’s docket, Cavanaugh tells GSA acting administrator Stephen Ehikian that the transfer “is in the best interest of USIP, the federal government, and the United States.” In a separate letter, dated March 29, Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought approved Ehikian’s request to “set the amount of reimbursement at no cost” for the facility.