PA Republican introduces bill to rename Virginia’s Dulles Airport after Donald Trump
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, who sponsored the bill, voted against infrastructure funding that’s being used to build a new terminal at Dulles.
Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler introduced a bill on March 29 that would rename Virginia’s Washington Dulles International Airport after former President Donald Trump.
“In my lifetime, our nation has never been greater than under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump. As millions of domestic and international travelers fly through the currently-named Dulles airport near DC, there is no better symbol of freedom, prosperity, and strength than hearing ‘Welcome to Trump International Airport’ as they land on American soil,” Reschenthaler said in a statement posted on Facebook.
Although Reschenthaler says he wants to rename Dulles after Trump, he voted against the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021 that allocated $35 million to build a new 14-gate terminal at the airport.
Trump, meanwhile, has a complicated history with Dulles Airport, which is located in Loudoun and Fairfax counties, about 26 miles from the White House.
In 2017, just days after taking office, Trump issued an executive order to make good on his campaign promise of banning Muslims from the United States. That order barred people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country for 90 days, a move that led to even permanent residents who were legally traveling back to the United States being detained in airports.
As people were detained at Dulles, protests against Trump’s order broke out at the airport, as well as at others across the country where people were being detained.
Trump has said he wants to bring back and expand the travel ban if he’s elected in November.
Virginia Democratic lawmakers, some of whom went toDulles during the 2017 travel ban to try to help their constituents who were stuck in limbo, slammed Reschenthaler’s idea.
“One of Trump’s first acts as president was a racist Muslim ban that blocked permanent American residents from their own country. I went to Dulles to try to help innocent people caught up in the chaos. I remember grandparents detained for hours as their terrified families waited,” Rep. Don Beyer tweeted, adding, “I remember Republicans like those who wrote this bill hiding and giving mealy mouthed responses when asked about the suffering Trump’s Muslim ban caused. They know Dulles will never be renamed after Trump. Again, that’s not the point, the point is to suck up to their Dear Leader.”
“This idea is ridiculous, but sadly real,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger tweeted. “Congress must act on pressing issues like reauthorizing the FAA and passing the national security supplemental. Yet this is what a Member of House Republican leadership focuses on — renaming Virginia’s Dulles airport after Trump.”
