Author: Lasuba Memo | Published: 7 hours ago
Photo|BBC
President Donald Trump’s name has been added above the existing lettering on the United States Institute of Peace headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C, according to Western media.
The State Department’s X account posted a photo of the updated facade Wednesday, calling Trump “the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history,” a reference to his efforts to resolve several international conflicts.
“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 wrote on X in support of the change as cited by NBC News.
Trump attended a signing ceremony at the newly renamed building Thursday to commemorate a peace agreement between the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, following meetings at the White House. Trump also hosted the leaders in June for an earlier signing.
“Thank you for putting a certain name on that building,” Trump said during the event, praising the updated signage. “I said, ‘Boy, that is beautiful.’ That blew up last night … it’s a great honor, it really is, on this building.”
The agency—known as the U.S. Institute of Peace since Congress established it in 1984—has been at the center of a legal dispute over whether the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency had the authority to dismantle it earlier this year. Most of the independent, nonpartisan institution’s staff were laid off in March.
The institute’s mission has long been to promote international peace and resolve violent conflicts. According to congressional research, it has acted as an intermediary among foreign governments, civil society groups, and U.S. officials, and has worked in conflict zones to link national and community-level peace efforts.
Trump has repeatedly highlighted his involvement in resolving global conflicts during his second term, arguing that his achievements merit a Nobel Peace Prize. This week he claimed to have ended eight wars, including conflicts involving the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, and Israel and Hamas.
There is no broad agreement, however, on how many conflicts have concluded under his administration. Trump has acknowledged the difficulty of ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, and clashes between Israel and Hamas have persisted in Gaza despite a fragile ceasefire.
In June, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit paused a lower court ruling that had prevented the administration from dismantling the institute while litigation continues.
