U.S. Institute of Peace seeks to block carving of Trump’s name on its headquarters facade

The United States Institute of Peace has filed an emergency motion to block the carving of President Donald Trump’s name on the facade of its building.

The Institute is asking the court to block the administration from carrying out plans to carve President Trump’s name on the facade of the iconic USIP headquarters building.

The lawsuit is part of a legal battle that began in May 2025, when a federal judge ruled that Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency,” or US Doge service, illegally took over the nonprofit organization created and funded by the U.S. Congress through “open force, backed by law enforcement officers from three separate local and federal agencies.”

Musk’s Doge staff fired most USIP employees in a late-night email in March 2025 and then forced their way into the think-tank organization’s building after canceling its private security contract.

In court, USIP has argued that the organization is an independent creation of Congress and outside the president’s executive authority. The administration argues it is an executive-branch organization and, last December, proceeded with placing Trump’s name on the outside of the building, using bolted-on lettering.

In the new filing, USIP’s lawyers argue that the administration, including Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has not followed the court order to preserve the status quo at the institute.