Elon Musk slammed the United States Institute for Peace by highlighting the fight between the unelected bureaucrats and federal law enforcement to secure access to their $500 million office in DC. Musk also drew attention to the massive fraud that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uncovered within the controversial institute, which included payments to Iran and the Taliban.

For context, DOGE slammed USIP with an aggressive takeover by firing over 300 staffers and announcing a plan to transfer the institute’s $500 million headquarters to the Government Services Administration (GSA). While former USIP officials have sued DOGE for their actions, a federal judge declined to block the takeover.

Starting the interaction, on March 30, 2025, an account posted a summary of the USIP drama. The post read, “DOGE: The DOGE team fought for days to gain access to the United States Institute of Peace. Eventually, with help from the FBI and Metro Police DOGE was able to access the agency and discovered massive fraud, waste and abuse-including payments to Taliban and Iraq.”

Replying to the post, Elon Musk added additional context to the situation. He said, “Any government institution is most likely to be the opposite of its name.” Following up, the tech CEO said, “They deleted a terabyte of financial data to cover their crimes, but they don’t understand technology, so we recovered it 🙄.”

In the comments of Elon’s response, conservatives flocked to congratulate him and defend DOGE. One of the comments read, “Elon, I know there’s a lot hurting your Tesla brand, but know this you’re doing a very noble thing with Doge. Most people support you and really appreciate what you’re you and your team are doing.”