PALM BEACH, Florida, July 9 (Reuters) – Palm Beach, Florida, renamed its airport after President Donald Trump on Thursday, becoming the latest in a series of institutions, buildings, government programs, warships and money to take on the Republican’s identity.
The renaming of Palm Beach International Airport to President Donald J. Trump International Airport was a high-profile nod to the Republican leader’s support in his adopted state of Florida, home to his ornate Mar-a-Lago resort.
“I don’t think there’s anybody more synonymous with Palm Beach than Donald Trump in maybe all of Florida,” Trump’s son Eric Trump said in an interview with Fox News.
Since he took office for a second White House term last year, Trump’s name has been imprinted on a planned class of Navy warships, a visa program for wealthy foreigners, a government-run prescription drug website and federal savings accounts for children.
He has also pursued an ambitious remaking of Washington. While the Trump name was added to the United States Institute of Peace building, courts have rejected an attempt to affix it to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation in March to rename the southeast Florida city’s airport after Trump. The Federal Aviation Administration three-letter identifier code will change from PBI to DJT – Trump’s initials – on August 18, the airport said on its website.
Eric Trump and his family were aboard the first flight to land at the newly named airport in the pre-dawn hours on a private plane.
“There’s no way in hell I was letting UPS be the first plane to land,” Eric Trump said in an interview with “Fox & Friends.”
(Reporting by Maria Alejandra Cardona in Palm Beach, writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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