A federal judge has been asked to prevent President Donald Trump from carving his name on yet another historic building in Washington, D.C.
During his second term, Trump has tried to literally make his mark on Washington, slapping his name on several D.C. landmarks, most notably the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Last December, the State Department announced that it had renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace “to reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation's history” shortly before Trump hosted a signing ceremony for a peace deal between the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Welcome to the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. The best is yet to come,” the department’s X post read. Trump’s name is tacked onto the building while the “Institute of Peace” is permanently etched in.
But now, ousted board members of the Institute of Peace asked the court in an emergency motion Thursday to stop any “plans to carve President Trump’s name into the facade of the iconic USIP headquarters building.” The motion was first reported on X by Kyle Cheney, a senior legal affairs reporter for Politico.
“The building — which was largely funded by private donations to USIP as a tax exempt nonprofit corporation — is a work of expressive architecture designed to be ‘symbolic of USIP’s’ independent ‘mission,’” the emergency motion said, according to a subsequent Politico article. “Alteration of the design to impose a different message would cause irreparable harm.”
Despite Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling Trump the “president of peace” when the building was renamed, the leader of the free world was the one who gutted the think tank created to resolve global conflict.
Trump called for the dismantling of the Institute of Peace in a February 2025 executive order as part of his and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s effort to reduce what they saw as government waste.
The executive order led to mass firings at the agency, which are still being challenged in court.
Most Americans oppose Trump naming government buildings after himself while in office.
Only 9 percent of Americans said it would be acceptable for Trump to name government buildings after himself while serving as president, according to a Pew Research Center poll released in May.
Around 70 percent said it would not be acceptable or would only be acceptable after he's no longer leading the country.
Last December, the Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board voted to put the president’s name on the building, prompting a wave of artists to refuse to perform at the arts center.
In May, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ordered Trump’s name to be removed from the Kennedy Center, stating, “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.” Weeks later, construction crews were seen taking Trump’s name off the building.
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