Scoop: Trump targets U.S. Institute of Peace and other federal boards
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President Trump plans to sign an executive order on Wednesday to eliminate, or dramatically diminish, a handful of federal advisory committees, according to administration officials.
Why it matters: The executive order, which the president plans to sign on Air Force One, will target organizations like the United States Institute of Peace and the Inter-American Foundation.
- The order is similar to his assertion Tuesday night that he has direct authority over boards and commissions like the FDIC, SEC and CFTC.
- The move will mark Trump's latest assault on a federal bureaucracy that he is convinced is hostile to his agenda.
- Like he has with Elon Musk's DOGE effort, Trump will also cite his concerns about the millions of dollars some of the committees cost taxpayers, officials said.
Driving the news: Trump will also require his Cabinet to scrub their departments and submit a list of additional committees and boards for termination within 30 days.
- His goal is to pare back the number of agencies to a statutory minimum, which may be complicated because some of them have been authorized by Congress.
- Where possible, he will fully eliminate agencies and advisory committees.
What we're hearing: Among the groups that Trump will single out for termination or reduction:
- The Presidio Trust, a federal agency that manages large parts of the Presidio in Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) San Francisco district.
- The U.S. African Development Foundation, which invests in African grassroots enterprises.
- The Presidential Management Fellows Program, which is designed to train recent college and graduate school grads for the executive branch.
- The Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid, which was founded to "advise the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other U.S. Government agencies on development issues relating to foreign assistance," according to its charter.
- The Health Equity Advisory Committee, which President Biden established in 2024, but Trump officials claim isn't actually meeting.
- Federal Executive Boards, which were created by President Kennedy to help coordinate government activities in different regions across the country. Trump has already killed at least one of them.
Between the lines: The Institute for Peace is being targeted, in part, because officials believe it is a highly partisan organization, with its employees contributing to the Democratic Party.
- And they consider the Inter-American Foundation, which was designed to invest in development projects across Latin America and the Caribbean, as a vehicle to justify Democratic theories about the root causes of migration.
Go deeper: A variety of councils are associated with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, including the Academic Research Council, the Community Bank Advisory Council and the Credit Union Advisory Council.
