Republicans Want to Rename D.C.’s Most Annoying Airport After Trump

Congress has been locked in a death spiral for months, but instead of trying to do anything productive, seven House Republicans are focused on a ploy to rename Washington’s most inconvenient airport after Donald Trump.

The bill was introduced Friday by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), and six cosponsors, and seeks to strip Washington Dulles International Airport of its namesake — Cold War-era Secretary of State John Foster Dulles — and rechristen it Donald J. Trump International Airport.

“In my lifetime, our nation has never been greater than under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump,” Reschenthaler told Fox News Digital. “There is no better symbol of freedom, prosperity and strength than hearing ‘Welcome to Trump International Airport’ as they land on American soil.”

Reschenthaler’s cosponsors include Reps. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), Barry Moore (R-Ala.),  and Michael Waltz (R-Fla.).

None of the three major airports in the D.C. area are actually located within the capital’s territory. Two, Dulles (IAD) and Reagan National Airport (DCA), reside in Northern Virginia, and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) services the area from Maryland. Of the three, Dulles has historically been the least convenient option for D.C. residents.

Before the establishment of a metro connection to the airport in 2022, there was little in the way of public transportation options to IAD. If you can’t swing the hour-long train ride to the airport from the city (compared to BWI’s 30 minute, $8 commute from D.C.’s Union Station) flying out of Dulles often means begging friends and family to make a long drive there and back, or paying for an expensive cab or rideshare. The airport itself is also notorious for its nonsensical, frustrating internal layout, including the cumbersome “people mover” system, in which passengers are transported between terminals on packed, slow-moving cargo buses reminiscent of a ‘60s sci-fi space convoy (and not in a fun way).

In 2015, Dulles was named the Worst Airport In The World by a Priceonomics survey of more than 17,000 airport reviews. In 2023, it was deemed the most expensive airport for domestic travel in the United States. In short: Dulles sucks.

But then again, is there a better homage to a divisive former president known for frustrating D.C. residents (and large swaths of the country) with his antics than renaming one of the worst airports in the country after him?

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