Florida residents expressed outrage over the recent name change to the Palm Beach International Airport – which last week was officially renamed as the “President Donald J. Trump International Airport” – as some vowed to “never” return to the airport again, NOTUS learned after filing a public records request.
“I am writing to assure you that as long as you are calling this airport anything closely related to ‘TRUMP’ I will NEVER FLY INTO THERE. NEVER!” a woman identifying herself as “Jan” wrote to the airport in protest. “You have 100% lost all my family’s business. Despicable move!”
The name change was approved after Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law last March to rename the airport in Trump’s honor, the first such instance of an airport being named after a sitting president. The airport’s rebranding is expected to cost taxpayers around $5.5 million, though the airport’s officials have “tried to placate frequent flyers,” NOTUS reported, by issuing a sympathetic statement.
“While we recognize that the required name change may be received in different ways by our passengers, we’re grateful for your continued support through this transition period,” reads an excerpt from the airport’s FAQ section on its website.
The statement did little to quell outrage, as was revealed in the countless letters the airport received that were later obtained by NOTUS.
“Hopefully you’ll have plenty of airbags to catch the barfs from people as they drive up,” one letter reads.
“It’s truly entertaining that you had to add a disclaimer to this form explaining the renaming of your airport after our racist, xenophobic, misogynistic 47th president,” reads another.
One person who identified themselves as a business owner, according to NOTUS, vowed to “reroute” their travelers “to other airports around and within Florida” in protest. Another, who described themselves as a “Canadian visitor” and frequent patron of the airport, proclaimed that they would “never step into it again despite the travel inconvenience.”
At least 24 letters made reference to Trump’s past friendship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including one that asked whether the airport offered “complementary flights to Epstein’s Island,” referencing Epstein’s island Little Saint James in the U.S. Virgin Islands.