Will Palm Beach airport be named after Donald Trump? County commissioners won't allow it, says report
Airports named after US presidents are fairly common. There’s John F Kennedy International Airport in New York. There’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. There’s also the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas. And so many more. But former President Donald Trump is unlikely to see one in Palm Beach County, Florida.
As per a report in the Sun-Sentinel, a majority of Palm Beach County commissioners said this week that they won’t support renaming the local airport, Palm Beach International, after Trump. The former president spent his first weekend out of office in Palm Beach. Having Palm Beach International renamed in Trump’s honor was an idea floated by Christian Ziegler, the vice-chairman of the Florida GOP.
County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said she won’t support the airport renaming. “When people hear [Palm Beach], they envision our beaches, our equestrian sports, and in some cases our agricultural contributions,” she said. “It is a lifestyle.”
McKinlay is one of five commissioners who said that they don’t intend to rename the airport while the other two commissioners didn’t comment on the issue at all. She said that Trump International is a name “better-suited for his golf courses, not our airport". She also said that Ziegler, a Sarasota County commissioner, probably should “stick to renaming his own county facilities, not ours.”
Recently, Anthony Sabatini, a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives who represents the state's 32nd House district in Lake County west of Orlando, suggested that U.S. Route 27 — a north-south United States Highway that runs from Miami toward the north of Tallahassee across Florida — be named in honor of Trump. But so far, no other renaming has been proposed in South Florida.
Robert Watson, a presidential historian, and professor at Lynn University told the Sun-Sentinel that while there is local precedent for past presidents to be honored, those name changes didn’t generate much controversy. But he said that the lack of controversy could also be partially attributed to cities usually waiting a few years after a president left office. “After years, the controversy subsides and the emotion and passions subside and it’s not a big deal.”
He said, however, with Trump’s volatile persona, combined with the country’s political discourse becoming increasingly more polarized and emotionally charged, the cooling-off period may not have much of an effect. “I imagine in a couple of years when there’s talk about renaming [things] for him — Trump could be the outlier, the anomaly,” he said. “He was so controversial. He generates such controversy that it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to touch it.”
Last December, it was reported that Trump showed interest in having an airport named after him. He reportedly asked his aides and advisors about the paperwork that would be required to get his name on an airport. At that time, Palm Beach was at the top of the speculation list. However, a spokeswoman for Palm Beach International Airport, Lacy Larson, said that airport officials had yet to receive inquiries about a name change. "We have not researched the process of renaming the airport, so I am unable to speculate on that," Larson said.