Trump’s rebranding of Palm Beach airport hasn’t taken off as he planned

A sign displays the name of the rebranded Donald J Trump international airport on 13 July in West Palm Beach, Florida. Photograph: Marta Lavandier/AP View image in fullscreen A sign displays the name of the rebranded Donald J Trump international airport on 13 July in West Palm Beach, Florida. Photograph: Marta Lavandier/AP Analysis Trump’s rebranding of Palm Beach airport hasn’t taken off as he planned Richard Luscombe in Miami Changes inside the Florida international airport are hardly evident as state and county hold back funds for full remodel One of Donald Trump ’s most grandiose vanity projects, a multimillion-dollar makeover of Florida ’s Palm Beach international airport into a self-aggrandizing , gold-plated transportation hub, is running into turbulence, barely a week after the first plane’s wheels touched the runway. At first glance, the rebranding of the airport less than 5 miles from his opulent Mar-a-Lago resort appears to be complete. Its website bears the name and oversized logo of the President Donald J Trump international airport, and state transportation workers were quick to erect highway signs leaving drivers in no doubt where they were heading. Yet inside the terminals, at the ticket counters and baggage halls, the change is far less noticeable. Digital signage reflects the switch, but many physical signs and infrastructure still refer to its old name of Palm Beach International (PBI). There is no clear timeline of when, or even if, new signs will be installed and PBI fully becomes DJT, the three-letter airport code using the president’s initials that will be its formal aviation industry designation starting on 18 August. Trump speech lays groundwork for him to tamper with midterm results, critics warn Read more The issue is money. A state law signed in March by Ron DeSantis , Florida’s Republican governor and intermittent Trump ally, mandated the name change on a reluctant county commission, which voted 4-3 in May to approve a trademark deal with the Trump Organization as some members feared consequences if they did not. But Florida’s $117.6bn budget signed off by DeSantis last month contained only $2.75m to fund the switch, half of the estimated $5.5m overall cost. And Palm Beach county is refusing to make up the shortfall, with some commissioners insisting taxpayers cannot and should not be left on the hook. “We will be able to make the baseline, necessary changes to signage with the $2,750,000. But for the full extensive signage, we will be needing the other half of those funds from the state,” Joseph Abruzzo, the county administrator, told the Miami Herald . Abruzzo was speaking on 9 July, the official handover day when “Trump Force One” carrying the president’s son Eric landed just after 5am to become the first to do so under the airport’s new name. A statement on the airport’s website, meanwhile, says that, beyond the $2.75m received in state money: “The remaining costs will be funded through the [Palm Beach county] Dep