Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was coy last year when asked if the feds would be seeking to rename Penn Station as part of their takeover of the project — but now the demand is explicit.
In a letter sent Wednesday to Senate leadership on several committees — a copy of which was obtained by the Daily News — Duffy lists “administration priorities” for the federal rebuilding of the nation’s busiest rail hub.
Amid a funding request and support for legislation that would allow Amtrak to siphon away state and local taxes, Duffy says the administration intends to “[d]irect Amtrak to rename New York Penn Station.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks during a press conference at Penn Station on Aug. 27, 2025 in New York. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
The station is currently named for the giant railroad that built the station in 1910 and occupied it until its 1968 merger with archrival New York Central. Duffy’s letter doesn’t mention what the station’s new moniker might be.
But whether or not Penn will join the long list of buildings adorned with the name of President and ex-New Yorker Donald J. Trump has been an open question since the federal government took its redesign over from the MTA last year.
Duffy teased his answer last August when asked by a reporter if the old name would stay.
“I imagine you’re asking, ‘is this going to be Trump Station?’” Duffy said. “I think that has a nice ring to it.”
Since then, Trump has tried cruder tactics to rename the station for himself.
Earlier this year, Trump tried to ransom completion of the Hudson River Tunnel — a major project meant to increase capacity into Penn Station — for the naming rights to Penn, telling Senator Chuck Schumer that he’d restore the funding he was withholding if Penn and Dulles Airport were renamed for the President.
The funding was later restored by court order.
The demand comes as Trump has sought to cement his legacy with in several ways.
Earlier this month, the U.S. mint began striking $1 commemorative coins with the president’s visage, nominally in honor of the nation’s 250th birthday.
Scaffolding still covers the The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., where the President’s name had been surreptitiously added, then removed by court order.
Earlier this month, Palm Beach International Airport in Florida was renamed for the President, who now resides in the state.