US

The Deep State Found Its Davy Crockett — WSJ Turns DOGE Blocker Into Folk Hero

U.S. Institute of Peace/Creative Commons/Flickr

The Wall Street Journal featured an essay portraying a bureaucrat’s refusal to allow Department Of Government Efficiency staffers entry into his building as a heroic act.

When DOGE officials arrived at the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) building a March 2025 afternoon, USIP chief security officer Colin O’Brien went on the offensive, blocking their entry. The WSJ on Friday exclusively featured an excerpt from nonfiction author Michael Lewis’s forthcoming book “Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State,” which appears to positively frame O’Brien’s actions and included a quote from him entertaining a comparison to legendary American frontiersman Davy Crockett.

The excerpt from Lewis’ book, set for publication Tuesday, chronicles that upon DOGE staff requesting entry, O’Brien “immediately” sent his IT staff a message saying “shut it down.”

“He’d left work early that day. His daughter needed help with her math homework, and he assumed nothing would happen late on a Friday afternoon,” Lewis wrote in the excerpt featured in the WSJ. “Then came the call from one of his guys saying that these DOGE kids were on the sidewalk and asking to be let in.”

The IT department complied, and the building went into lockdown mode, including the magnetic locks. Two hours later, DOGE returned with two FBI agents. When O’Brien went out to meet them “the DOGE trio didn’t have a warrant or a court order or really anything except attitudes,” Lewis wrote.

O’Brien then denied them entry.

“I knew what I was fighting for. I knew what I was trying to protect,” the USIP employee said per Lewis’ book.

“I know their objective was going to be to destroy us,” O’Brein added, according to the excerpt. “And I know I was being asked to be the D.C. version of Davy Crockett. And I know that the analogy is not exact.”

The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Wall Street Journal for comment. They replied that they are not in a position to comment given the piece was a book excerpt rather than original reporting.

USIP is a taxpayer funded institute which Congress established in 1984.

When O’Brien was summoned to meet with the Department of Justice over this incident, he refused, per the excerpt.

Fearing that Inter-Com, the security group that guards government buildings, would abide by DOGE’s requests, he locked them in the building’s portico, the excerpt recounts. The D.C. police then arrived and escorted him away from the premises.

“They are ordering the D.C. cops around like their own private army,” O’Brien said according to the excerpt, which did not feature quotes from the police. “I didn’t see that coming. I didn’t see the police taking sides.”

Following this failed showdown, the USIP was renamed the Donald Trump Institute for Peace, and Nate Cavanaugh, one of the DOGE personnel who was denied entry, was appointed president of the organization.

This was not the only instance of the USIP acting out against DOGE. In March 2025, the Daily Caller News Foundation first reported that USIP officials retaliated against leadership changes. Employees committed acts of sabotage including destroying locks and disabling phone lines, internet, and other communication infrastructure.

Lewis, a former longtime contributing editor to Vanity Fair, is known for his books “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game” and “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,” all of which have been adapted into films.