The president has been slammed as a “grifter in chief” after it was revealed his company filed trademark applications for “Donald J. Trump International Airport” and similar names.
Palm Beach International Airport, just four miles west of Mar-a-Lago, is in the process of being renamed after the 79-year-old Trump—a name change that, if signed into law, would cost the airport $5.5 million to remake signs, uniforms, promotional products, equipment, and more.
While the measure is still working its way through the GOP-controlled Florida legislature, the president appears intent on ensuring he profits from the name change immediately.
Trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who first reported on the trademark applications, writes that Trump’s holding company, DTTM Operations LLC, is asking to profit from “a range of branded merchandise, including clothing, handbags, luggage, jewelry, watches, and tie clips” associated with three variations of the likely soon-to-be-renamed Palm Beach airport.
That trio of names is President Donald J. Trump International Airport, Donald J. Trump International Airport, and simply “DJT,” which may be the airport code the White House hopes “PBI” will change to.
Gerben writes that such an application, filed on an “intent to use” basis asking pre-approval by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, is “completely unprecedented” in the history of the presidency.
“The move raises unusual questions about the intersection of public infrastructure and private brand ownership,” he writes. “While presidents and public officials have had landmarks named in their honor, a sitting president’s private company has never in the history of the United States sought trademark rights in advance of such naming.”
Gerben says the application is a clear sign that Trump is not just hoping to be honored by having his name on his adopted hometown’s airport—a measure the State Senate approved last month—but is also hoping to profit from it.
Florida-based Seeking Rents journalist Jason Garcia reports that the Senate bill to rename the airport “was changed a few weeks ago to require Palm Beach County to enter into a licensing agreement with the owner of the rights to the name.”
Garcia writes that, as written, the bill requires Palm Beach County to have access to the airport’s name at no cost. However, it does not preclude Trump from receiving a “cut of merchandise sales or another revenue-sharing agreement” or from “selling airport-related things himself.”
Once passed, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would have to sign either bill—SB 706 in the Senate or HB 919 in the state House—into law for the name change to legally take effect.
The 47-year-old failed presidential candidate clashed with Trump in the 2024 GOP primaries but has still displayed a willingness to work with Trump. The two men played golf together at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach over the weekend.
Trump has been on a renaming and remodeling crusade since returning to Washington.
The president has slapped his name on the Kennedy Center, claims that the Department of Defense is now the Department of War, renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, and reverted the name of Alaska’s Mt. Denali back to Mt. McKinley.
He has also blinged up much of the Oval Office, adding a blinding amount of gold accents, frames, and gilding. Trump also outright demolished the White House’s historic East Wing to make way for his massive ballroom.
Between all this, Trump also found time to pave over Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden—turning it into a made-for-Mar-a-Lago patio—and is pushing forward with a plan to construct a 250-foot-tall “Independence Arch,” dubbed the “Arc de Trump,” to be built in Washington for the country’s 250th birthday.
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