Northern Virginia Democrats slammed a new House GOP proposal to rename the Washington-area Dulles International Airport after former President Donald Trump.
At issue is a brief two-page proposal, introduced by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) on March 29 with half a dozen additional GOP co-sponsors, that would rename the facility the “Donald J. Trump International Airport.”
“Donald Trump is facing 91 felony charges. If Republicans want to name something after him, I’d suggest they find a federal prison,” Fairfax-area Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said in a statement to POLITICO.
He wasn’t alone in the criticism. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) recalled the day Trump enacted his executive order barring entry to individuals from certain majority-Muslim countries in 2017 — and lawmakers went to Dulles to press for legal representation for detainees.
“I remember Republicans like those who wrote this bill hiding and giving mealy mouthed responses when asked about the suffering Trump’s Muslim ban caused,” he wrote. “They know Dulles will never be renamed after Trump. Again, that’s not the point, the point is to suck up to their Dear Leader.”
The airport, the closest with international flights to the Capitol, is currently named for influential former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, but is routinely derided by area travelers over its customer experience.
