A Florida lawmaker wants to rename an airport in the state after President Donald Trump. It’s one where Air Force One frequently lands: Palm Beach International Airport.
“President Trump is the most consequential president of our lifetime and a resident of Palm Beach County, which makes it only fitting to honor him, like many other presidents before him, by naming our airport Donald J. Trump International,” said State Rep. Meg Weinberger, a Republican from Palm Beach Gardens, in a statement.
Though Trump is originally from New York, he spends much of his time at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach and he’s a resident there. According to Fox News Digital, Weinberger introduced the bill to change the airport’s name over the weekend but it is still in the drafting stage.
Weinberger has also co-sponsored a bill to rename a four-mile stretch of Southern Boulevard after Trump, stretching from the airport out to Mar-a-Lago, WPBF reported.
Weinberger isn’t the first Republican to advocate for an airport to bear the president’s name. Rep. Addison McDowell (R-N.C.) and other House Republicans, introduced legislation to rename the Dulles International Airport in Virginia after Trump earlier this year, Fox News Digital noted. It said that legislation has not moved beyond referral.
According to North American traffic data published this summer by Airports Council International, neither airport ranks in the top 10 busiest in the country, though two Florida airports – Orlando’s and Miami’s – rank in ninth and 10th place respectively. However, Fox News Digital noted that Palm Beach International had “a record-breaking year between May 2023 and May 2024, handling over eight million passengers,” citing the airport’s statistics.
“It was also ranked the ‘best in the U.S.’ for shortest overall TSA wait times by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to information from the airport’s official site,” the outlet added.
It said more than 10 commercial airports in the U.S. are named after presidents, including John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, and Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Mich. Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Ark., is named after the former Democratic president and his wife, who beat Trump in the 2016 election popular vote but lost to him in the electoral college.
“Comparatively few of America’s airports so far are named after politicians and they are equally split between Democrat and Republican,” as of 2022, according to the Center for Aviation. “Few of the country’s most influential early politicians are represented, and where they are it is usually at secondary airports. Likewise, only four of the last 10 presidents have their name appended to an airport.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment regarding the potential re-naming of Palm Beach International.