On Tuesday, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) blasted a recently filed Republican plan that would rename Washington Dulles International Airport after former President Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump is facing 91 felony charges,” Connolly, who represents a piece of Dulles, said in a statement. “If Republicans want to name something after him, I’d suggest they find a federal prison.”
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) presented a measure on Friday that would rename Dulles to “Donald J. Trump International Airport.” In a press statement announcing the bill, he stated that the US “has never been greater than under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump.”
“As millions of domestic and international travelers fly through the airport, there is no better symbol of freedom, prosperity, and strength than hearing ‘Welcome to Trump International Airport’ as they land on American soil,” said Reschenthaler.
Dulles, named for former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, is located in Virginia, more than 25 miles west of central Washington, D.C. It is one of three major airports in the Washington, DC area, along with Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Maryland.
The bill’s co-sponsors include Republican representatives. Mike Waltz (Florida), Andy Ogles (Tenn.), Chuck Fleischmann (Tenn.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Troy Nehls (Texas), and Barry Moore (Alabama).
Connolly’s fellow Virginian, Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D), whose district includes Dulles, also attacked the bill in a post on X, which was previously known as Twitter.
“This is just another in a long list of instances where extreme House Republicans have shown how unserious & delusional they are,” Wexton told reporters on Tuesday. “Let’s get to work on the real issues the American people sent us here for—not renaming an airport after someone who sought to undermine our democracy.”
In an email to The Hill, Gosar stated that he “can see no more fitting recognition than naming both airports in our nation’s capital after two of America’s best presidents.”
“I find it laughable the feigned outrage by some on the left concerning the renaming of the Dulles airport after Donald Trump when these same individuals celebrated the renaming of the airport in Little Rock after the corrupt and Predator in Chief [former President Clinton],” he on to say.