Board says alteration would cause ‘irreparable harm’ to building’s expressive design
Former members of the U.S. Institute of Peace board asked a court on Friday to block President Donald Trump from having his name carved into the agency’s Constitution Avenue headquarters, the latest filing in an ongoing legal dispute over the congressionally chartered nonprofit.
In an emergency motion, the ousted board members said they had asked Kenneth Jackson, a Department of Government Efficiency official serving as acting president of USIP, to ensure the carving would not proceed. Lawyers for the board said they “understand that a formal request for the work has been made and a contractor has been selected,” according to CNN.
The motion frames the building itself as the stake. “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 filing said. “Alteration of the design to impose a different message would cause irreparable harm.”
The board members acknowledged the symbolic weight Trump and his allies attach to the project but said the president would suffer no concrete injury from waiting. “Notwithstanding the importance that the President and his supporters place on attaching his name to notable buildings,” the motion said, “appellants will suffer no harm or prejudice whatsoever if they are precluded from carving the President’s name into the USIP building unless and until this litigation concludes in their favor.”
The dispute is the latest in a series of administration efforts to add his name to federal and federally affiliated buildings. In December, letters bearing his name were bolted to the outside of the Constitution Avenue building — a step short of carving. The agency’s full name, “United States Institute of Peace,” is already carved into the facade. Trump marked the December installation with a signing ceremony attended by the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
USIP was created by Congress under former President Ronald Reagan to conduct research and training to promote democracy abroad. Trump and DOGE moved to oust the institute’s board shortly after taking office. Before adding his name, Trump tried to dismantle the nonprofit altogether, a step the courts did not permit. The institute has separately been litigating to reinstate its former president, George Moose.
The USIP filing lands alongside separate federal court rulings against the administration’s effort to add his name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. On Tuesday, a federal judge told the administration for a second time that Trump could not put his name on the Kennedy Center. On Thursday, the same judge ordered that any plans to change the Kennedy Center must be submitted in writing 30 days before any work begins.