Will Trump profit off renaming Palm Beach airport? His team wants the trademark

MIAMI — A bill to rename Palm Beach International airport President Donald J. Trump International Airport passed the Florida House and advanced in a Florida Senate committee on Tuesday — just four days after a private company linked to the Trump family trademarked the proposed name.

A company managed by the Trump organization called DTTM Operations LLC filed three new trademark applications for “DJT,” “Donald J. Trump International Airport,” and “President Donald J. Trump International Airport” late Friday. The trademarks would cover dozens of goods and services, according to the applications, including airport buses, parking garages, suitcases and more.

Trademark attorney Josh Gerben said the move by a private Trump-linked company to own the name for an airport is unprecedented — both in the history of the dozen other airports named after presidents, and in comparison to Trump’s attempts to rename other buildings while in office, like the Kennedy Center.

“This is the first [trademark] filing we’ve seen him make in that private company since taking office that really has a direct relationship to something he’s trying to accomplish in office, which is the renaming of these airports,” Gerben said.

Reagan National Airport’s trademark, for example, is owned by the public entity that operates the airport — not a private company, Gerben said.

“They own the trademark for it, not the president, not President Reagan’s heirs or library or anything like that,” Gerben said.

Democrats who opposed the passage of the bill in an 81-30 vote in the Florida House Tuesday said the private trademarks for the name represent the latest “grift” from a president whose personal wealth has grown by more than $4 billion while in office, according to reporting in January by the New Yorker.

“Once again, it feels like the grift is happening, it feels like there’s ill gotten gain,” St. Petersburg Democratic Rep. Michele Rayner said on the House floor before the vote.

The Trump Organization’s executive operations and communications director Kimberly Benza told the Herald/Times in an email that the trademark applications were filed in order to prevent “bad actors from infringing upon or misusing the name” and that “the Trump Organization is, and always has been, willing to provide this right to his hometown county at no charge.”

The Republicans pushing the proposal in the Florida Legislature also rejected allegations that the Trump family could profiteer off the name change.

Palm Beach Gardens Rep. Meg Weinberger said she received a note from the “Trump family” that she partially read to her colleagues on the House floor Tuesday, echoing part of the statement the Trump Organization provided to the Herald/Times. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

“To be clear, the president and his family will not receive any royalty, licensing fee or financial consideration whatsoever from the proposed airport renaming. The airport renaming bill currently in the Florida Legislature requires a license agreement from the Trump organization,” Weinberger, a Republican sponsoring the bill in the House, said.

The bill, however, did not require a licensing agreement when it was initially filed. The provision was added into both the House and Senate version of the bills as amendments within the last three weeks.

The Palm Beach County Department of Airports has said it has not entered any agreements with Trump or his affiliated companies. The department anticipates that implementing the name change will cost $5.5 million, according to public affairs manager Rebeca Krogman.

“The Palm Beach County Department of Airports has no authority to enter into an agreement regarding the name change,” Krogman said in an email. “The decision is being made at the state level.”

House and Senate versions of the proposals both include language referring to “commercial use of ‘President Donald J. Trump International Airport’ by Palm Beach County… at no cost, in signage, advertising, marketing, merchandising and promotions and for the branding of the airport and its operations, services, and amenities, and all related purposes.”

After the bill passed the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday, bill sponsor Sen. Debbie Mayfield told the Herald/Times that Trump will not profit from the airport’s use of his name.

“[Trump] is not charging the Palm Beach International Airport for the use of the name,” Mayfield said. “He’s not charging them a franchise fee. He’s not charging them a license fee. He’s not charging them a fee for doing it.”

Mayfield said the president’s name had been trademarked for a long time, and that he recently also trademarked his name in the context of an airport to protect his brand.

“It keeps people from using it in a way that he would not want them to use it,” Mayfield said.

Palm Beach county Democratic state House Rep. Kelly Skidmore said during debate about the bill Tuesday that she didn’t believe Trump wouldn’t personally profit from the name change.

“This is a man who only thinks about how he can improve his financial situation as the president of the United States,” Skidmore said. “If you think for one second he’s doing it for free, you’re crazier than he is.”

During a Democratic caucus meeting on Tuesday, Sen. Tina Polsky also raised concerns about how the name change would affect victims of sexual crimes committed by the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump was mentioned multiple times in the Justice Department’s release of the Epstein files. Trump has denied all wrongdoing, or knowledge of the crimes.

“We don’t need people who are victims of the Epstein class to walk in and out of that airport all the time, and see the name of someone who is mentioned in those Epstein files,” Polsky, a Democrat from Boca Raton, said.

“It happened in Palm Beach,” Polsky added about the sex crimes. “The people of Palm Beach County are suffering.”