By Nandita Bose and Courtney Rozen
WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's name has been affixed to the United States Institute of Peace building in Washington, D.C., nearly nine months after his Department of Government Efficiency seized the nonprofit organization and all but closed it.
The change came ahead of Trump hosting the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo inside the building on Thursday for the signing of a U.S.-brokered peace deal.
Trump's State Department said it renamed the building, adding Trump's name above U.S. Institute of Peace on the exterior, "to reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation's history," according to a post on the department's X account on Wednesday.
"Thank you for putting a certain name on that building," Trump told Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the signing event, adding that it was a "great honor."
The name change builds on the president's earlier efforts to remake the institute. DOGE fired the nonprofit's employees in March and installed its own leadership. A federal judge later declared the move unlawful, calling the effort a "gross usurpation of power."
But most of the staff left the building and lost their jobs again a few weeks later, after an appeals court paused the earlier ruling, said Liz Callihan, a former institute staffer. The building has been largely empty since mid-summer, except for roughly a dozen facilities and operations employees, she said.
The institute's Wikipedia page was edited on Thursday to say it is "an American institute that supports the Executive Branch," according to website records viewed by Reuters. The institute is not a federal agency, however, as Congress set it up in 1984 as an independent nonprofit. Whether the president and his staff have the authority to fire institute employees is part of the lawsuit being considered by the appeals court.
When asked about the decision to emblazon the building with the president's name, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly on Wednesday said the institute had been renamed for the president.
"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. Congratulations, world!" she said.
The claim that Trump has ended eight wars this year is widely disputed. Much work remains before most of the conflicts the president claims to have ended can actually be considered resolved.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Courtney Rozen in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Michael Perry and Cynthia Osterman)
