The US Peace Institute once sued Donald Trump. Now it bears his name

The U.S. Institute of Peace, a 41-year-old agency that works with the nation’s executive branch to resolve violent conflict abroad, has been renamed for President Donald Trump, the U.S. State Department announced on social media Wednesday.

“Welcome to the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace,” the department said on X. “The best is yet to come.”

The post described the president as “the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history.”

In March, the institute sued the president and his Department of Government Efficiency, challenging the administration’s efforts to occupy its headquarters and install new agency leadership. The independent institute, created and funded by Congress, was targeted as part of DOGE’s efforts to reduce federal bureaucracy.

A federal judge ultimately permitted the takeover.

Republican lawmakers have proposed numerous bills and resolutions that would lionize Trump or feature his image over the past two years, including legislation introduced by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, in June 2024 that would have required the U.S. Treasury to revive production of the $500 bill with Trump’s portrait replacing that of President William McKinley.

Others have pushed to award Trump the Congressional Gold Medal for foreign policy achievements, to rename Dulles International Airport or state roadways after him, or to apply his name to the nation’s nearly 4.4 million square mile Exclusive Economic Zone.

Since regaining the presidency, Trump has sold or backed bibles and coins and previously hawked Trump-branded sneakers and NFT trading cards. As a real estate and reality TV billionaire, Trump's name has adorned high-rise hotels, casinos, airlines, vodka and a shuttered university forced to pay $25 million in restitution over fraud allegations.

Contributing: Dan Morrison