Trump Renames Institute of Peace for Himself
Workers installed the president’s name on the Washington institute, thrusting it back into the spotlight as it is set to host the signing of a peace deal between Rwanda and Congo.
A dormant government building in the nation’s capital may seem like an unlikely setting for the signing of a peace deal. But nearly nine months after the Trump administration seized control of the U.S. Institute of Peace headquarters in an extraordinary public showdown and all but shuttered it, the center has re-emerged, newly named for President Trump.
The morning before Mr. Trump was scheduled to host a signing ceremony at the institute with the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, workers arrived at the building on the National Mall to install Mr. Trump’s name in large, silver letters to two sides of the exterior of the building, positioning his name to the left of where the institute’s name was already engraved into the facade.
The result was a re-dubbing of the building as the “Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace.”
The White House confirmed on Wednesday evening that the institute had been renamed for the president “as a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability,” Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman, said.
“Congratulations, world!” she added.
Renaming the decades-old institute, which had been heralded by presidents like Ronald Reagan, who signed it into law, and adhering his name to its facade appears to be a continuation of Mr. Trump’s effort to portray himself as a great diplomatic deal-maker as he campaigns for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Over the past year, Mr. Trump claimed credit for ending a host of conflicts, including the three-decade war between Rwanda and Congo. The White House has previously asserted that his work on diplomacy is more impressive than that of the Institute of Peace, which the White House has called a “bloated, useless entity.”
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