A committee of Florida state senators on Tuesday unanimously advanced legislation to rename Palm Beach International Airport to “Donald J. Trump International Airport.”
The bill, SB 706, leaves the names of all other airports the same but preempts the authority to rename airports to the state, not to local officials. The bill resembles a similar bill in the state House, HB 919.
All nine members of the Florida state Senate Committee on Transportation backed the bill, including three Democrats.
“President Trump is the first president that Florida has had in our history, and I think it’s very appropriate for us to be naming one of the other icons in Palm Beach after him,” state Sen. Debbie Mayfield (R), who sponsored the bill, told Politico.
The state committee amended the bill to require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to approve the name change. Renaming the airport would also require a possible rights agreement to commercially use the airport’s new name at no cost for promotions, advertising, merchandising and branding for the airport and its operations, services and amenities.
It is unclear who will pay for the name change, with county officials saying it could take between 18 and 24 months to completely rename the airport, Politico wrote. A concern is whether or not the name change could result in “an increase in general security threats,” officials told the news outlet.
The bill will next be seen by a state House committee on Wednesday.
For decades, President Trump has placed his name across buildings belonging to his business. Placing his name on buildings became a feature of the first year of his second term. In December, Trump’s name was added to the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) after the Department of Government Efficiency targeted it as part of its efforts to slash funding to government entities and cut back labor.
The move was met with condemnation from USIP leadership. George Foote, an attorney who represented former USIP leadership and staff, said the name change “adds insult to injury.”
“The rightful owners will ultimately prevail and will restore the U.S. Institute of Peace and the building to their statutory purposes,” he said.
Weeks later, the Kennedy Center board unanimously voted to rename the performing arts center to “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
The president said he was “surprised and honored” by the name change, but the move caused several artists and musicians to withdraw from performing, most of them citing differences with the administration, including composer Philip Glass on Tuesday. The name change also drew condemnation from Kennedy family members.
A building in the works that could reportedly include Trump’s name is the ballroom that will occupy the space where the White House’s East Wing once stood. ABC News reported in October that it would be called “The President Donald J. Trump Ballroom,” though a senior White House official told NewsNation that no decision has been made on the name yet.
The following day, however, Trump dismissed the reporting about the ballroom, saying there are no plans yet to name the ballroom after himself, calling the reporting “fake news.”
