TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2013 Gov. Ron DeSantis wasted little time signing a bill that will rename Palm Beach International Airport after President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
A little more than a year after the two clashed over the Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis on Monday signed legislation (HB 919) delivered to him earlier in the day, which dubs the West Palm Beach airport as \u201cPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport.\u201d <\/p>\n
DeSantis didn\u2019t hold a public bill signing event as he continues to mend fences with Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago Club sits east of the airport.<\/p>\n
The plane carrying former president Donald Trump lifts off at Palm Beach International Airport, Monday, April 3, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Fla. Trump is heading to New York for his expected booking and arraignment on charges arising from hush money payments during his 2016 campaign.(AP Photo\/Rebecca Blackwell) (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s son Eric Trump praised the signing on X, where he thanked DeSantis, Attorney General James Uthmeier, bill sponsor Rep. Meg Weinberger, R-Palm Beach Gardens, and \u201cthe overwhelming majority in the Florida House!\u201d <\/p>\n
The House voted 81-30 along party lines in support of the bill. The Senate vote was 25-11, also along party lines.<\/p>\n
House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, called the measure a misdirection of priorities by state lawmakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of working across the aisle with us to advance those bills, Republican leaders decided to prioritize wasting five million of your taxpayer dollars on renaming an airport after the President,\u201d Driskell wrote in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of Florida did not ask for this,\u201d Driskell added. \u201cIt\u2019s clear Tallahassee Republicans care more about political stunts than they care about your wallet.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the bill was on the Senate floor, Sen. Debbie Mayfield, R-Melbourne, the Senate bill sponsor, said Trump deserves the honor for cracking down on illegal immigration by deporting more than 400,000 undocumented migrants and forcing Canada and Mexico to restrain fentanyl trafficking into the country.<\/p>\n
Debbie Mayfield, R-Melbourne (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an honor for me to present this bill to rename Palm Beach International Airport after the first Florida resident to be elected President of the United States,\u201d Mayfield said during the Feb. 19 floor session.<\/p>\n
In response to criticism against naming roads and structures for sitting lawmakers, Fort Myers Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin suggested during the same floor session that the airport renaming is based upon Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe served as the 45th president. He\u2019s currently serving as the 47th president,\u201d Martin said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that he should be penalized, or we should wait simply because people re-elected him. He finished his first term years and years ago, we can go ahead and honor him now and it\u2019s completely timely.\u201d<\/p>\n
The law, effective July 1, also prevents local governments from renaming several airports throughout the state, including 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.<\/p>\n
The name change is subject to approval by the Federal Aviation Administration and the execution of an agreement between Palm Beach County and the trademark holder authorizing the commercial use of the name Donald J. Trump International Airport.<\/p>\n
The bill advanced as DTTM Operations LLC, a Delaware-based entity managed by The Trump Organization, filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last week for \u201cintent to use\u201d the names \u201cPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport,\u201d \u201cDonald J. Trump International Airport,\u201d and \u201cDJT.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayfield maintained that Trump isn\u2019t going to charge the airport for royalties or any fees to use the name.<\/p>\n
While lawmakers still have to return to complete the budget for the next fiscal year, the Senate\u2019s proposed spending plan before the regular session ended on March 13 included $2.75 million to cover the cost of changing signs and other items across the West Palm Beach complex, which annually handles around 8.6 million passengers.<\/p>\n
The line item was half of the $5.5 million requested by Mayfield.<\/p>\n
Included in Mayfield\u2019s funding request was $250,000 for rebranding consultants involving overhead announcements, emergency messaging and telephone system updates. Another $250,000 is sought to rebrand equipment, vehicles, marketing materials and uniforms.<\/p>\n
Separate bills that have yet to be sent to DeSantis name Commercial Boulevard within Lauderdale-by-the-Sea as \u201cPresident Donald J. Trump Boulevard\u201d (HB 33) and name the 124-miles of State Road 80 from Palm Beach County to Lee County as \u201cPresident Donald J. Trump Highway\u201d (SB 628).<\/p>\n
The state road designation is part of a larger transportation package that also adds the late Florida State University Football Coach Bobby Bowden\u2019s name to Tallahassee International Airport.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2013 Gov. Ron DeSantis wasted little time signing a bill that will rename Palm Beach International…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,12,2808,451,3,2819,452,453],"class_list":["post-555155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-donald-trump","tag-florida","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-ron-desantis","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}