Emergency motion filed to stop Trump’s name from being engraved on Institute of Peace building

The U.S. Institute of Peace’s former board members filed an emergency motion Thursday to block President Donald Trump’s name from being engraved into the building.The State Department renamed the institution in Washington after Trump in December 2025. At the time, the president’s name was added to the building’s exterior in removable silver lettering. The Trump administration is now looking to engrave the president’s name into the building’s facade, according to an emergency petition filed by ousted board members in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit this week, which alleged a contractor has already been selected to carve Trump’s name into the Constitution Avenue headquarters.“The threatened carving would impose serious irreparable harm,” the court filing reads. “It is a discrete act that can and should be forestalled through a limited, status-quo-preserving modification of the stay pending appeal.” “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,’” it continues. “Alteration of the design to impose a different message would cause irreparable harm.”On Friday, the White House declined to comment on whether officials are looking at engraving Trump’s name on the institution’s facade.“The United States Institute of Peace was once a bloated, useless entity that blew $50 million per year while delivering no peace,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Now, the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, which is both beautifully and aptly named after a President who ended eight wars in less than a year, will stand as a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability. Frivolous litigation to stymie these efforts should be rejected.”The saga comes as the Trump administration is similarly embroiled in a court battle over whether it can place the president’s name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts or elsewhere on the institution’s site.VANCE AND MAGA INC. WORK TO DEFEND ROGER MARSHALL IN REDDER KANSASDisgruntled former staff from the Institute of Peace have been warring with the White House for months after the president issued an executive order seeking to pare down the center in a bid to reduce the footprint of the federal bureaucracy. The Trump administration argued the institute “cost taxpayers over $50 million per year while failing to deliver peace.” The president’s Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, slashed the institute’s staff last year, ultimately leading to the ouster of President George Moose.The debacle sparked a legal battle, as the ousted leadership claimed the government had overstepped its authority. A federal appeals court handed the administration a win last June, allowing the DOGE to dismantle the institution and the General Services Administration to manage it while the battle plays out in court.