Ex-USAID Officials, Military Brass Reportedly Discussed ‘Extra-Constitutional’ Plans For America

A collection of non-governmental organizations staffed by former members of the military, federal government, and intelligence community are reportedly working to undermine the Constitution following the midterm elections.

Jillian Butler · Oct 25, 2026 · 5 min read

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Ex-USAID Officials, Military Brass Reportedly Discussed ‘Extra-Constitutional’ Plans For America

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Danielle Reiff, a former USAID democracy officer, among other colleagues from the agency, has reportedly been operating through various grassroots organizations working to undermine the Trump administration since USAID’s closure in July 2025, according to Pounds.

“Take it from those of us who worked in authoritarian countries: We’ve become one … they were so quick to disband [The U.S. Agency for International Development], the group that supposedly instigates color revolutions,” one former employee reportedly declared. “But they’ve done a very foolish thing. You just released a bunch of well-trained individuals into your population. If you kept our offices going and had us play solitaire in the office, it might have been safer to keep your regime.”

THE DEMOCRACY FILES, PART 2: WHEN AND HOW TO DECLARE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ILLEGITIMATE
Some questioned whether a group of 200 ex-USAID officials could actually pull off their ambitions to rewrite the Constitution.
Here, they describe exactly how it works. They aren’t… pic.twitter.com/1zktzZaVeh
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) October 20, 2026

Others reportedly shared the CIA’s “Simple Sabotage Field Manual” with government officials perceived as potential allies.

Reiff and others allegedly have turned their efforts from undermining the administration of President Donald Trump towards the upcoming midterm elections. Representing her new organization, Renew to Thrive, Reiff has spoken at Zoom meetings hosted by the Democratic Constitutional Forum, an organization which has regularly platformed speakers advocating for creating a new American Constitution.

Renew to Thrive, composed of former USAID and USAID-backed NGO officials, has direct ties to protest groups including 22nd Century Initiative and No Kings, Pounds reported. Their strategy is to “block, bridge, belong, and build.” Blocking, in particular, involves citizens “safeguarding the 2026 and 2028 votes, defending free speech and peaceful assembly, exposing corruption in both political parties, and refusing to let intimidation become ordinary.” In other words, civil disobedience. Building, on the other hand, involves facilitating a replacement government. “Guarding the old system is not enough,” their strategy reads.

Declaring the government illegitimate and rebuilding a different government is a recurring theme within Return to Thrive discourse.

“I’m seeing a crisis of legitimacy with the November midterm election … what we really need to do is transform our system”, Reiff stated in a recording of a March 25, 2026, obtained by Pounds. In a 2025 22CI meeting attended by Reiff, Marcia Mundt, another former USAID employee, discusses applying the USAID framework for assessing what qualifies as an “illegitimate government” to America. “We were never allowed to analyze the United States in this way before because there is this big dividing line between foreign assistance work and domestic work, so I never got to use it for a U.S. context, but now that I no longer have a job, I can use it for whatever I want,” Mundt appears to state in another recording shared by Pounds.

Return to Thrive also connects with democracy experts from countries that have undergone American-backed regime changes, including Brazil, Guatemala, Serbia, and Slovakia, according to their strategy.

THE DEMOCRACY FILES / ILLEGITIMACY PLAYBOOK, PART 4: YES, MANY ARE AWARE OF THE GOALS
This one is a thread because there are multiple materials.
On January 15, 2026, Renew American Democracy (RAD), the strategy built around the Democracy Renewal Group’s (DRG) ex-USAID… pic.twitter.com/vPqJNHQLI8
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) October 21, 2026

“What I think is needed is prebunking and inoculation, you know, anticipating some of these narratives before they actually dominate the information space,” Rast’o Kǔzel, executive director of Slovakian NGO Memo 98 Media and Election Monitoring, advised during a July 9 call hosted by Reiff, according to Pounds. Memo 98 was established by the USAID-backed National Democratic Institute. “We need to be present at every polling station,” Raša Nedeljkov of the Serbian NGO CRTA asserted. CRTA is also USAID-backed according to European Correspondent.

Return to Thrive also reportedly partnered with the National Security Leaders for America, whose over 1,400 senior military and intelligence officials allegedly conduct public outreach and advise policymakers. The 501(c)(4) organization’s website notably publicized a toolkit for “managing military intervention” during the election.

Its founder, retired Rear Adm. Mike Smith, runs the “Insurrection Act Working Group” alongside Reiff. “Everyone is already organized, they’ve identified the red lines and everyone on the streets — the entire blocking community,” Reiff claimed, according to Pounds. Regarding an Aug. 6 conversation she had with Smith, Reiff claimed he said “the research all shows you that the blocking community can, like, rid us of a dictator, and the renewal will not happen if there’s not a positive vision and a plan for what to do on the day after,” according to Pounds. In the same meeting, Reiff also referred to her red lines and claimed “we can take that breakdown moment and leverage it for a big structural reform, you know refounding moment.”

“The conversation centers around what’s going to happen if we go extra-constitutional to create the kind of transformation that we’d all like to see,” Reiff reportedly claimed March 25 when discussing a post-midterm vision.

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