Federal infrastructure projects across the country are increasingly being branded with President Donald Trump’s name, despite having been funded by a bill he vocally opposed.
The New York Times reported Sunday that in southern Connecticut, a $1.3 billion effort to replace a 118‑year‑old rail bridge along America’s busiest rail corridor is underway, mostly paid for by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The legislation was championed by then‑President Joe Biden and fiercely rejected by Trump.
According to the report, motorists passing the site now encounter a red roadside sign declaring, “PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP — REBUILDING AMERICA’S INFRASTRUCTURE,” preceded by a smaller note acknowledging the project’s funding source as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
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Amtrak spokesman W. Kyle Anderson told The Times that the new signs “are a voluntary Amtrak initiative, updating outdated signage posted at the project locations listed previously, following the change in presidential administrations earlier this year.”
Since then, analogous Trump-branded signs have emerged at other federally funded infrastructure sites—bridge projects in Connecticut and Maryland, rail-yard improvements in Seattle, Boston, and Philadelphia, and a tunnel replacement on Amtrak’s Baltimore-Washington corridor, per the report.
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT), whose district includes the Connecticut project, said the signage is “just, you know, very odd to me,” adding that “That bridge would never have gotten where it is today without that bill, which he opposed.”
The report noted that replacing the name of one president with another on public infrastructure is not unprecedented. Under the Biden administration, some signage at projects funded by the same law credited the bill as “Project funded by President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure law,” prompting criticism.
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In June last year, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, calling the labeling campaign a federal employee partisan political activity that violated the Hatch Act. The office ultimately determined otherwise and closed the investigation.
However, Cruz's hasn't reacted to the latest labeling campaign.
"Infrastructure questions are sensitive for Mr. Trump, who ran for president in 2016 reminding voters that he was one of the nation’s great master builders, promising an infrastructure rebuilding program to rival the New Deal era. But he never quite pulled it off. In fact, his administration’s repeated efforts to hold an Infrastructure Week became a running joke during his tumultuous first term," the report said.
Meanwhile, the report led to criticism of the president on social media.
The New York Times' DC correspondent Glenn Thrush wrote on the social platform X: "Trump slaps his brand on everything -- wine, buildings, failing airlines, guitars, yadda... Now the GOP is Trump-branding something else: Biden's landmark infrastructure bill. After opposing it."
Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson wrote: "Narcissistic Personality Disorder has entered the chat."