President Donald Trump is looking for more infrastructure he can put his name – reportedly telling New York Senator Chuck Schumer he would release stalled funding for the city’s transportation upgrades, if the senator supported renaming Penn Station and Dulles International Airport after Trump.
The president has a penchant for naming things after himself and, since returning to the White House, has used his authority to encourage Republicans and allies to rename the Kennedy Center, a fleet of battleships and the Institute of Peace in his honor.
But it appears he is also leveraging critical funding to inspire Democrats to do the same.
The White House reportedly told Schumer the president would unfreeze more than $16 billion for the long-planned Gateway Tunnel project – which will add a new rail line between New York and New Jersey – if he agreed to the renaming, Punchbowl News reported.
Sources told news outlets Schumer swiftly rejected the offer and said he did not have the authority to rename the transportation hubs.
The Independent has asked the White House for comment.
“No. This is ridiculous,” New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said on X. “These naming rights aren’t tradable as part of any negotiations, and neither is the dignity of New Yorkers.”
Gillibrand said the president was putting “his own narcissism over the good-paying union jobs” that the Gateway Project provides.
“I demand that the president put people first and unfreeze this project and all the others his administration has been holding hostage for his personal gain,” Gillibrand added.
The group overseeing the Gateway Project filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration this week, seeking to have millions of dollars released that serve as payment for the construction.
Trump froze funding for the Gateway Project as well as the Second Avenue subway project in October so his administration could review whether it was complying with his DEI policies. But this past week, officials warned that it was rapidly losing the funds to keep the project going.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s office responded to the news that Trump had attempted to leverage funding for naming capabilities with an AI-generated image of Trump Tower renamed to “Hochul Tower.”
“Counteroffer,” the governor’s office wrote.
California Rep. Eric Swalwell said of the idea of naming the airport that serves Washington, D.C. after Trump, “Just when you thought Dulles couldn’t get any worse.”
Maryland Rep. April McClain Delaney asked, “What’s next?” in response to the report.
“Trump’s ego branding is insane and selfish, and demonstrates his utter lack of leadership on issues of affordability, U.S. competitiveness and national security,” McClain Delaney wrote. She added that she introduced legislation to stop the president from renaming the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center.
New York Rep. Jerry Nadler demanded that Trump release funding to the Gateway Project and called his attempt to rename infrastructure “extortion.”
“Donald Trump’s legacy will not be defined by where he slapped his name; it will be defined by the mess he left our nation’s most important infrastructure project,” Nadler wrote.
While lawmakers condemned and mocked Trump for wanting the transportation hubs named after him, other people trolled him.
“Two of the s***tiest transit hubs in America, I’d take the deal,” pollster Nate Silver wrote.
