PALM BEACH, Florida, July 9 (Reuters) – Palm Beach, Florida officially renamed its airport after President Donald Trump on Thursday, becoming the latest in a series of institutions, buildings, government programs, warships and money to take on the Republican’s identity.
The renaming of Palm Beach International Airport to President Donald J. Trump International Airport was a high-profile nod to the Republican leader’s support in his adopted state of Florida, home to his ornate Mar-a-Lago resort.
“I don’t think there’s anybody more synonymous with Palm Beach than Donald Trump in maybe all of Florida,” Trump’s son Eric Trump said in an interview with Fox News.
Since he took office for a second White House term last year, Trump’s name has been imprinted on a planned class of Navy warships, a visa program for wealthy foreigners, a government-run prescription drug website and federal savings accounts for children.
He has also pursued an ambitious remaking of Washington. While the Trump name was added to the United States Institute of Peace building, courts have rejected an attempt to affix it to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation in March to rename the southeast Florida city’s airport after Trump.
The Federal Aviation Administration three-letter identifier code for the airport was changed from PBI to DJT on Thursday. But passengers will need to use PBI to book flights until August 18, the airport said on its website, when it will be reflected on baggage tags, tickets and airline reservation systems.
The airport said the name change cost $5.5 million.
Eric Trump and his family were aboard the first flight to land at the newly named airport in the pre-dawn hours on a private plane.
“There’s no way in hell I was letting UPS be the first plane to land,” Eric Trump said in an interview with “Fox & Friends.”
JetBlue Airways is the largest carrier in Palm Beach and along with Delta Air Lines and American Airlines operate about two-thirds of flights.
Other U.S. airports have been named for politicians, including Little Rock, Arkansas’s airport after former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – but it retained the LIT airport code.
Other airports have been renamed after former lawmakers including in Las Vegas and San Jose, California.
(Reporting by Maria Alejandra Cardona in Palm Beach; additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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