Just when you think you’ve won against Donald Trump, just when you think the courts are on your side, he finds ways to place incompetent cronies in important positions. The battle surrounding the congressionally mandated U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) has been going on since mid-March. We thought justice won when a court ruled in May that the DOGE firings and executive takeover were illegal. But last week the State Department announced that DJT has been able to place one of his most suspect followers in a position to oversee the prestigious institution. While I was shocked when George Moose, the eminent former president of USIP and former assistant secretary of state, had been physically escorted out of the USIP headquarters by the Metropolitan police, I am more than shocked (if that’s still possible with Trump) to read about the ways the new person was chosen to replace Moose as well as the new acting director’s background. And the implications of the latest ruling go well beyond USIP.

USIP is a historically bipartisan Washington institution. It was founded in 1984 by Republican President Ronald Reagan. On March 14, DOGE fired Ambassador Moose as USIP’s president as well as many of the staff. The move was made to gut the Institute and eventually close it down in a way similar to what had happened to USAID and other government organizations providing foreign aid. 

There have been several court cases and appeals following the March incident. DOGE tried to transfer ownership of USIP and its other assets to the executive branch. USIP countered that it is an “independent nonprofit corporation,” that does not meet U.S. Code definitions of “government corporation,” “government-controlled corporation” or “independent establishment.” 

On May 19, federal judge Beryl Howell sided with the Institute’s sitting board, ruling that DOGE had used “a gross usurpation of power.” Howell wrote that Trump and his subordinates “used brute force and threats of criminal process to take over USIP’s headquarters, despite being cautioned that this organization did not fall within the Executive branch and its leadership was not subject to the President’s unilateral Executive branch removal power.” Howell ruled that Trump cannot appoint members of the board since USIP is a congressionally mandated, “independent, non-profit corporation.” The mass firings were overturned and the building returned to the Institute. 

The importance of that decision was that if Trump can remove people like George Moose from the board and direction of USIP, there would be no limit to his ability to remove other appointees and make his own appointments. Howell’s ruling confirmed the independent status of USIP and the importance of the separation of powers. Beyond USIP, the decision was extremely relevant to Trump’s threats to remove Jerome Powell as the Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve. 

That was the optimistic part. 

Now to the negative. In late June, a panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals granted the government a stay regarding the May ruling, allowing new members to the board and returning the USIP building to the executive branch. As a result of that ruling, the State Department announced last week that the new board of USIP – including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth – named Darren Beattie acting director of USIP. 

Who is Darren Beattie? A February 2025 article in The Atlantic described Beattie’s history and previous job; “Over the years, Beattie has reportedly spoken alongside white nationalists, alleged that the FBI orchestrated January 6—his preferred term is Fedsurrection—and repeatedly posted online that various Black personalities and politicians should “take a KNEE to MAGA.” In his new role as under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, he will help shape the tone.”

As for Beattie’s recent appointment to be acting director of USIP, Aishvarya Kavi wrote in the July 25, 2025, New York Times:

Mr. Beattie drew scrutiny during Mr. Trump’s first term. In 2018, Mr. Beattie was fired by the White House for attending a gathering with white nationalists two years prior. He had appeared on a panel with Peter Brimelow, the founder of the anti-immigrant site VDare, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a “hate website.” But in 2020, the White House appointed Mr. Beattie to a commission that helps preserve sites related to the Holocaust. The decision was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish group.

Mr. Beattie, who is Jewish, brushed off the criticism at the time. “I consider it an honor to be attacked by the far-left ADL,” he said.

Mr. Beattie, formerly a visiting professor at Duke University, also founded a website called Revolver News that has amplified conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. On his own social platforms, Mr. Beattie has also cheered on white nationalist views and inflammatory rhetoric on race.

“Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,” he said on social media last year.

Comparisons are not always fair. Comparing Darren Beattie to George Moose would be a great disservice to Moose. As I have written, “Ambassador Moose has had an outstanding, distinguished diplomatic career. Among other titles, he was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva as well as Ambassador to the Republics of Benin and Senegal. He has been recognized by the State Department by a Senior Performance Award, Superior Honor Awards, and the Meritorious Honor Award. He was promoted to the rank of Career Ambassador in 2002.”

The choice of Beattie to head USIP is no surprise. Members of Trump’s Cabinet Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Brooke Rollins, Pam Bondi and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were incisively described as incompetent “good-looking dodos” by Maureen Dowd in The New York Times. Add Linda McMahon, head of the Department of Education, whose only credentials are that she was president and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) which she ran with her late husband Vince, a good friend of Donald Trump.

The USIP case is still under review. George Moose wrote on July 24; “USIP will continue to fight through the appeals process to regain control of the organization and its assets – including its headquarters – and to fulfil its congressionally mandated mission. Judge Howell’s [May] ruling confirmed USIP’s independent status and held all of the actions to dismantle the Institute that followed to be null and void, including the illegal firing of hundreds of employees.”

The legal fight over who governs USIP is more than just about personalities, although comparisons between Beattie and Moose are relevant. That President Trump has tried to expand executive authority beyond legal limits is part of the current American Constitutional crisis. More than just one institution’s future is at stake in the USIP turmoil. If the government finally wins, the result would give the president unchecked removal power, and a potential end to the democratic principle of the separation of powers.

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