NYT (“Trump Renames Institute of Peace for Himself“):
A dormant government building in the nation’s capital may seem like an unlikely setting for the signing of a peace deal. But nearly nine months after the Trump administration seized control of the U.S. Institute of Peace headquarters in an extraordinary public showdown and all but shuttered it, the center has re-emerged, newly named for President Trump.
The morning before Mr. Trump was scheduled to host a signing ceremony at the institute with the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, workers arrived at the building on the National Mall to install Mr. Trump’s name in large, silver letters to two sides of the exterior of the building, positioning his name to the left of where the institute’s name was already engraved into the facade.
The result was a re-dubbing of the building as the “Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace.”
The White House confirmed on Wednesday evening that the institute had been renamed for the president “as a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability,” Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman, said.
“Congratulations, world!” she added.
Renaming the decades-old institute, which had been heralded by presidents like Ronald Reagan, who signed it into law, and adhering his name to its facade appears to be a continuation of Mr. Trump’s effort to portray himself as a great diplomatic deal-maker as he campaigns for a Nobel Peace Prize.
[…]
The headquarters has sat vacant since the administration seized control of the building in March as part of a broader effort by the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly led by Elon Musk, to dismantle institutions that work on foreign policy. In the weeks after the building was seized, the administration fired most of the staff and gutted the organization. It even dismantled a fixture inside with the institute’s name and logo, a depiction of a dove and an olive branch.
George Foote, a former lawyer for the institute who is now part of the lawsuit against the administration, said in a statement on Wednesday that “renaming the U.S.I.P. building adds insult to injury.”
The 150,000 square-foot building is a central part of the lawsuit. The institute was created by Congress and received federal money for its programs, but former staff have argued that it is not part of the executive branch and therefore not subject to the president’s authority.
Aside from issues of propriety, my initial instinct was that this must be illegal. I had been under the impression that federal buildings couldn’t be named for current officials. But, as best I can tell, that’s not the case.
40 U.S. Code § 3102 – Naming or designating buildings
The Administrator of General Services may name or otherwise designate any building under the custody and control of the General Services Administration, regardless of whether it was previously named by statute.
A revision in 1958 removed the “requirement of approval by Bureau of the Budget for change or rechange of name or designation.”
