“As you know, President Trump is the first president that Florida has had in our country and our history, and I think it’s very appropriate for us to be naming one of the other icons in Palm Beach County after him,” bill sponsor Debbie Mayfield, R-Indialantic, said, referring to Trump being a Palm Beach County resident.

Initially known as Morrison Field when the first commercial operations were conducted in 1936, the airport has been Palm Beach International Airport since 1948. The airport served as a military base during World War II and the Korean War. The county took over airport operations in 1959.

In 2021, as Trump reportedly asked advisers to get an airport named after him, and a former Republican Party of Florida leader suggested the West Palm Beach airport, the majority of the Palm Beach County Commission rejected the idea when asked by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Mayfield said after Tuesday’s meeting that there would be a “huge economic impact” for the county.

“Air Force One stays at their airport. And so, it’s a big economic driver for them,” Mayfield said. “We’ve talked to the Trump people. There’s a lot of other things that are going to be happening at that airport that are going to be very positive for that airport. So that’s what changed their mind.”

A House version of the bill (HB 919) is scheduled to be heard Wednesday by the Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee.

Mayfield’s bill would need approval from the Senate Community Affairs Committee and the Senate Rules Committee before reaching the Senate floor.

During the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers designated a four-mile stretch of Southern Boulevard in Palm Beach County — from Kirk Road, south of Palm Beach International Airport, to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club on South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach — as “President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.”

Mayfield’s bill wouldn’t change the names of the other major airports in Florida: Orlando International Airport, Miami International Airport, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, Tampa International Airport, Southwest Florida International Airport in Lee County and Jacksonville International Airport.