– The Washington Times
President Trump was convening Wednesday with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to discuss revamping Washington Dulles International Airport amid plans to redo the signs to add Mr. Trump’s name on them.
In early February, Mr. Trump hosted infrastructure and construction companies — including a firm working on the president’s White House ballroom project — to pitch proposals for reimagining the Washington-area airport, according to The Washington Post.
Among the proposed changes are building new terminals, rebranding the airport’s shuttles as “Direct Jet Transports” — reflecting the president’s initials — and making the existing Saarinen terminal into a concessions area.
One proposal targets the main terminal designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen; the president has praised his architectural vision, wanting to preserve the flagship terminal while making it easier to navigate.
Mr. Trump has said he has a new design in mind to remake the “badly designed” facility into a “great” one.
“Dulles should inspire pride and awe in foreign travelers visiting our country and American citizens returning home,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement. “The Trump administration is committed to using every tool at our disposal to ensure that Dulles lives up to our nation’s majesty as we seek to both Make America and our Airports Great Again.”
The Transportation Department has complained about the limited number of gates. It is exploring multiple public-private partnership opportunities “to remake Dulles at the speed of Trump,” having collected proposals for “revitalizing Dulles” last month, with roughly half a dozen companies making the cut for the previous meeting with Mr. Trump and Mr. Duffy, according to the Post.
The Trump family company recently filed to trademark the exclusive rights to use the president’s name on airports and related things, including shuttles and travel bags.
If renaming Dulles after Mr. Trump goes through — the airport is named after former U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles — it will join others with the president’s name: the Kennedy Center performing arts venue, a road outside Mar-a-Lago in Florida, an upcoming new class of battleships and the Institute of Peace in Washington.
• Mary McCue Bell can be reached at mbell@washingtontimes.com.
