Trump Airport Faces Flight Restrictions After Vanity Name Change
President Donald Trump’s latest vanity project is set to have special protections after officials named it after him.
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The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing special flight restrictions near the Palm Beach airport renamed after the self-obsessed 80-year-old, citing security concerns tied to his nearby Mar-a-Lago residence, Reuters reports.
The agency wants to bar flights within a one-nautical-mile radius and up to 2,000 feet around Mar-a-Lago, which sits close to the airport. The Secret Service requested the restrictions, citing “adverse threat intelligence” and saying the change would “greatly increase the ability to mitigate the persistent risks posed by unauthorized aircraft and unmanned aircraft systems,” according to the FAA.
The proposal comes after Palm Beach International Airport, which had carried its name since 1948, was rebranded as President Donald J. Trump International Airport, marking the first time an airport has taken the name of a sitting president.
The switch also changed the facility’s longtime code from PBI to DJT, confusing travelers dealing with updated flight plans and last-minute code changes.
The transition rolled out in phases, and for about a month passengers faced mismatches between the airport’s old name and its new code, with some receiving notice from airlines and travel agents that their itineraries had changed.
The renaming has drawn two lawsuits, thousands of petition signatures, and even a $30 million bomb threat. Comment logs obtained through the Florida Public Records Act showed the airport was flooded with angry messages, most of them negative, according to NOTUS.
One message invoked Trump himself, falsely claiming there was a bomb on-site and on a departing plane, and threatened to detonate it unless money was sent. Others included profanity, with one person calling officials “spineless motherf–kers” and accusing them of corruption, while another dubbed the facility “Palm b—h.”
At least 17 messages referenced pedophilia, apparent nods to Trump’s past friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which Trump has denied any wrongdoing in connection with. Some fliers said they planned to drive to airports in Fort Lauderdale or Orlando rather than pass through anything bearing the president’s name.
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The renaming is part of a broader push by Trump to stamp his name across American institutions, from the Kennedy Center to paper currency to a new class of Navy warships.
In July, Eric Trump brushed off the backlash during an appearance on Fox & Friends, calling the renaming only “slightly controversial.”
The president’s 42-year-old son said the change had drawn overwhelming support, citing backing from the governor, state lawmakers, and all five airlines serving the airport, and credited his father with putting the region on the map.
“He’s a man that deserves it, a man that’s done so much for this country. He’s fought like hell for all of us,” Eric Trump said of his father. “As a son who worked so hard to make this happen, I couldn’t be more proud. Today was a really special moment.”
Eric made no mention of the lawsuits, boycotts, or bomb threats the renaming has drawn.
The FAA told the Daily Beast in a statement: “At the request of the U.S. Secret Service in the interest of national security, the FAA is proposing Special Air Traffic Rules for the airspace near Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT).
“The Notice of Proposed Rule Making would restrict aircraft operations within the DJT Special Flight Rules Area, allowing flights only if specific safety and operational conditions are met.”
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