President Donald Trump raised eyebrows earlier this year when he moved to dismantle the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) and fire its board members.

Although a federal judge initially ruled that the president had overstepped his authority, an appeals court has reversed that decision. 

"President may remove executive officers at will"

According to the Daily Caller, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit concluded on Friday that the Institute holds "substantial executive power."

"As a general rule, the President may remove executive officers at will,"

🚨🚨🚨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 result, its board members are not shielded from being removed at will by the president, who would be likely to suffer "irreparable" harm if prevented from exercising his authority over it.

"As a general rule, the President may remove executive officers at will," the three-judge panel was quoted as writing in its opinion.

The only exception exists in the case of agencies with quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial authority and little in the way of executive power.

Organization awarded contracts to a former Taliban member

The USIP was created by an act of Congress in 1984 and purports to be "a premier peacebuilding organization" that is "dedicated to promoting peace by preventing, mitigating and resolving violent conflict abroad."

However, the Daily Caller noted how research by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uncovered facts which appear to be at variance with that mission.

Among them was USIP's decision to award $130,000 worth of contracts to a former Taliban member for services that remain unclear.

"The small agency called the United States Institute of Peace is definitely the agency we had the most fight at. We actually went into the agency and found they had loaded guns inside of their headquarters," the Daily Caller quoted one DOGE team member as saying.

USIP was "spending money on things like private jets"

"Additionally, we found that they were spending money on things like private jets, and they even had a $130,000 contract with a former member of the Taliban," the team member continued.

“So it was a contractor. They received $130,000 for generic services," the team member said of the former Taliban figure.

"And, to [Elon Musk's] point, there was not actually a clear description of what the contractor services were for," he went on to add.