WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Institute of Peace, the federal agency chartered to resolve conflicts around the world, filed an emergency motion Thursday to stop the administration from carving the President’s name into the stone of its own headquarters, which is, on the record, a building that has already been renamed for the President, reorganized, and, in the words of its own lawyers, “maintained.”

The filing, per CNN’s coverage of the motion, is the latest chapter in the life of a building that was, in the specific, the Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace. The agency’s leadership was replaced, its functions were, on the record, streamlined, and its name was, in the specific, expanded. And now the agency, through its lawyers and a group of ousted board members, is asking a federal appeals court to hold the line on the one thing left: the stone.

The specific sequence, for those who have been keeping score, is as follows. The building received a new sign, with the President’s name above the old one. That was, on the record, external lettering. The administration, unsatisfied with the “relative impermanence” of external lettering, is now, per the filing, intending to carve the name into the facade while the litigation is pending. And the institute, which has, on the record, been the most active litigant in the building’s history, has asked a court to say the stone should wait.

"We are not opposing the name. We are, in the specific, opposing the method, which is, on the record, a chisel."

The irony, as the record shows it, is not subtle. The institute was reorganized first. The leadership was replaced. And it is the replaced leadership, on the record, that is now asking a court to keep the building’s new name from being made permanent, which is, for an agency whose mission is to keep the peace, a posture its own press release describes as “preserving the status quo,” the same two words the administration has, on the record, used to describe the entire building.

The agency’s lawyers, in the motion, cite the Kennedy Center as a bellwether, a building the President has threatened to tear down and was, on Wednesday, seen viewing a large printout that appeared to say, in the specific, that the center should be demolished. The printout, the filing notes, is the kind of document that a building, on the record, does not want to see.

THE BUILDING, AS THE RECORD SHOWS

  • The name on the sign: Added, on the record, in December. The President's name, above the old one. The building, on the record, accepted it.
  • The method: External lettering. Per the filing, "relatively impermanent." The administration, on the record, disagrees with that adjective.
  • The proposed upgrade: Carving. The name, in the specific, into the stone. Pending litigation, on the record, included.
  • The plaintiffs: The institute and a group of ousted board members, who are, on the record, the only people left in the building with standing and a grievance.
  • The bellwether: The Kennedy Center. A building, on the record, with a printout.

The administration, when asked about the chisel, did not confirm the chisel, but did not, on the record, deny it, which is, for a building whose name is being considered for the stone, a response the institute’s lawyers are, on the record, calling a confirmation.

At press time, the motion was pending, the stone was, on the record, uncut, and the institute’s position was that the building should remain, in the specific, exactly as it is, a stance that its own lawyers described as peace, which is, on the record, the name of the thing the building was built to do.