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Donald Trump has decided to satisfy his ego once again after succeeding in a bid to rename Palm Beach Airport ‘Donald J. Trump International Airport'. Palm Beach International, which sits just five miles from Trump's infamous Mar-A-Lago golf course, where he visits every week to play golf and host tacky parties for his millionaire donors. The name change was passed with sweeping approval through the GOP-run Florida House, with representatives voting 81-30 in favour of renaming the airport. According to Palm Beach County's department of airports, the name change will cost more than $5mn to implement.
Democrats scrap on the House floor
While Florida House representatives voted in a clear majority, the sense on the House floor was significantly more divided than the total count implies. Democratic representatives from Florida fought tooth and nail to deny the name change, but their cries were in vain. As soon as Donald Trump announced his wish for the renaming, Republican senators trampled over each other to shout their approval of the President. Nonconsequential name changes are the kind of pro-Trump behaviour MAGA-verse politicians will take every opportunity to support in order to show their support for America's fearless leader.
Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell called the name change a grift, even if Trump claims his family will receive no financial compensation for the name change. GOP lawmakers lauded the move, citing Trump's stellar reputation and his positive impact on Palm Beach. According to GOP state Rep. John Snyder, Trump has turned Palm Beach into one of the most desirable and important locations in the world, and Mar-a-Lago is a symbol of power for the United States. Snyder also called the golf course the ‘winter White House, ' leading to questions about the merging of government office and personal property. The renaming also raises questions about the intersection of public infrastructure and private brand ownership, as it was Donald Trump's LLC that originally lobbied Congress to rename the airport.
Another Trump building?
In December 2025, Donald Trump added his name to the legendary Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, renaming it the Donald Trump – John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (very subtle). After Trump quite literally slapped his name on the Kennedy Center in December 2025, the President clearly needed another monument to his greatness – this time around the corner from his other home. While it's clear that Trump wants to see his name on every building he passes, these re-naming bids are not free, and while Trump's camp reportedly won't see any profit from the renaming, it's also not paying for the logistical costs the renaming includes.
The cost of an ego
It's unclear how much Trump's renaming of the Kennedy Center cost taxpayers – the renaming was part of a larger renovation that cost roughly $250 million in Congressional funding. The $250 budget was used in part for the renaming. Donald Trump's Gatsby-esque ballroom, which he destroyed half of the White House to build, will cost an estimated $400 million. While Trump continues to claim that the ballroom will be funded entirely by private donors and what he calls ‘Great American Companies,'; but with much of the funding still in the air, and the final design for the ballroom only just being approved on January 20th, Trump's $400 million figure seems more dubious by the day.
With hundreds of millions of dollars already being spent to satisfy Trump's ego, what's another $5.5 million? According to Palm Beach County's department of airports, that's what the name change will cost to implement: $5.5 million. The costs will include logistical changes such as remaking signs, uniforms, promotional products, and equipment, as will as ancillary costs related to marketing and training. Trump's holding company, DTTM Operations LLC, also filed patents on the names “President Donald J. Trump International Airport,” “Donald J. Trump International Airport,” and “DJT,” the latter most likely being the airport code Trump hopes Palm Beach International (currently PBI) will switch to once the new name is in place.
An (un)consenting Palm Beach
Surprisingly, while Florida's House has already voted and passed the bill, the Palm Beach County Commission has not had the chance to weigh in on the effort to rename its airport. While republican lawmakers convince the public that Palm Beach is in debt to Donald Trump, the city did not vote for him in 2024. Donald Trump lost Palm Beach County to Kamala Harris by less than 500 votes in 2024. Palm Beach County has long been a Democratic stronghold, and the Harris's narrow victory in 2024 was the slimmest democratic win in more than 20 years. Trump's relationship with Palm Beach has resulted in the county's demographic seeing a steady flow of high-income conservatives, but Trump still lacks majority support in the county.
