WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s name has been added to the sign on the United States Institute of Peace
headquarters in downtown D.C., above the existing building name.
The State Department’s X account shared a photo of the new facade on Wednesday in a post that called Trump “the greatest
dealmaker in our nation’s history,“ an apparent reference to his work to end multiple conflicts around the world.
“President Trump will be remembered by history as the President of Peace. It’s time our State Department display that,”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X about the name change.
The agency, which has been known as the U.S. Institute of Peace since Congress established it in 1984, has been
embroiled in a legal battle over whether the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency had the power to
dismantle it earlier this year. Most of the independent nonpartisan institution’s staff was let go in March.
The institute’s mission has been to promote peace internationally and resolve violent conflicts. The research arm of
Congress notes the agency has served “as an intermediary among foreign governments, civil society, and U.S. government
officials” and “worked in conflict zones with national, regional, and community level stakeholders to connect top-down
and bottom-up initiatives.”
Trump will participate in a signing ceremony at the newly renamed building Thursday to mark a peace agreement between
the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo after hosting them at the White House. Trump had also
hosted them for a peace deal signing in June.
The president has repeatedly touted his role during his second term in helping to resolve multiple conflicts, arguing it
should earn him the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump claimed this week that he has ended eight wars, including the conflict
between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, and Israel and Hamas.
There isn’t consensus, however, on the number of conflicts the president has brought to an end. Trump has complained
that resolving the Ukraine-Russia war has been a challenge, and fighting has continued between Israel and members of
Hamas in Gaza amid a shaky ceasefire.
In June, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit paused a lower-court decision that had
blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the institute while litigation moved forward.
“The President faces irreparable harm from not being able to fully exercise his executive powers,” the appeals court
panel wrote. The judges added: “Because the Institute exercises substantial executive power, the Government is likely to
succeed on its claim that the Board’s removal protections are unconstitutional.”
An appeals court hearing on the merits of the issue had been scheduled for this month, but has been postponed. The
Institute of Peace building, meanwhile, has been transferred out of its board’s hands to the General Services
Administration, which manages federal buildings.
An attorney for former leaders and staff of the institute denounced the Trump administration’s move to name the agency
after the president in a statement Wednesday.
“Renaming the USIP building adds insult to injury,” said the lawyer, George Foote. “A federal judge has already ruled
that the government’s armed takeover was illegal. That judgment is stayed while the government appeals, which is the
only reason the government continues to control the building. The rightful owners will ultimately prevail and will
restore the U.S. Institute of Peace and the building to their statutory purposes.”