The White House is calling out “rogue bureaucrats” at a small federal agency for attempting to bar members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from entering their headquarters this week.
Elon Musk’s DOGE team members and acting head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Peter Marocco, in accordance with President Donald Trump’s executive order to downsize the federal government, sought to enter the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) building on Wednesday, but were denied entry after reportedly being intentionally locked out by members of the staff.
The cost-cutting team returned to USADF the next day with U.S. marshals after the Department of Justice (DOJ) determined that they had a right to enter the building, a White House official told Fox News Digital, prompting a lawsuit from USADF President Ward Brehm, who asked a district court to bar the administration from removing him from his position.
Brehm, who admitted to directing employees to deny DOGE entry, is attempting to block DOGE from entering the USADF offices, but the White House responded that “entitled, rogue bureaucrats have no authority to defy executive orders by the President of the United States or physically bar his representatives from entering the agencies they run.”
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Elon Musk speaks during an event at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11. (AP Images)
“President Trump signed an executive order to reduce the federal bureaucracy, which reduced the USADF to its statutory minimum, and appointed Peter Marocco as acting Chairman of the Board,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.
In the lawsuit, filed on Thursday, Brehm alleges “unlawful overreach” from DOGE and asks the court to give him a “clear entitlement to remain in his office as the President of USADF” after Trump, according to the White House, appointed Marocco to serve as acting Chairman of the Board.
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Peter Marocco, acting head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. (Getty Images)
“The threatened termination of Brehm from his position as President of USADF, whether by Marocco, President Trump, Director Gao, or any of the remaining Defendants, is unlawful,” the 26-page complaint reads.
On Friday, District Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington, D.C., issued a temporary restraining order preventing Brehm’s removal.
Trump has applauded DOGE’s efforts to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in “waste” from the federal government as he makes “bold and profound change” within the federal government.
“My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again,” Trump said during his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.
Vice President JD Vance, left, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., right, listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg)
“Any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately, because we are draining the swamp. It’s very simple,” the president said. “The days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to Brehm and USADF for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
