House Republicans push to rename Dulles airport after Trump

Republican Rep.

Guy Reschenthaler (PA) introduced a bill to designate the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia as the “Donald J. Trump International Airport.”

The airport, located 26 miles west of Washington, DC, is currently named after John Foster Dulles, a United States Secretary of State during the Eisenhower administration from 1953 until 1959.

John Foster Dulles was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, opposing communism. He was also reportedly involved in the 1953 Iranian coup d’état and the overthrow of the Guatemalan government. His younger brother, Allan Welsh Dulles, was the CIA Director from 1953 through 1961.

Dulles opened in 1962 and was dedicated by President John F. Kennedy with former President Dwight D. Eisenhower in attendance. The airport’s main terminal is a regional landmark designed by Eero Saarinen, who also designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

Dulles boasts the most international passenger traffic of any airport in the Mid-Atlantic outside the New York metropolitan area, according to the Department of Transpiration in 2016.

Reschenthaler’s House bill to name the airport after the forty-fifth president was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on Friday. Reschenthaler, who volunteered for duty in Iraq and is now serving his third term in Congress, is seeking co-sponsors for the bill.

With Republicans’ slim House majority heading into the November elections, it appears unlikely that the airport will be renamed.

But if Republicans win the presidency and the Senate and retain the House, the name change could be successful.