By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Feb 5 – U.S. President Donald Trump offered last month to drop his hold on funding for a key $16 billion New York Hudson River tunnel project in exchange for Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer supporting the renaming of Washington Dulles Airport and New York Penn Station after Trump, a source told Reuters Thursday.
Punchbowl News first reported the offer citing four sources that was swiftly rejected by Schumer, who told the White House he did not have the power the rename the landmarks, a source confirmed to Reuters. The White House did not respond to a request for comment and Schumer’s office declined to comment.
On Friday, a U.S. judge will hold a hearing on the emergency request by New York and New Jersey to force the restoration of funding for the $16 billion Gateway Hudson River tunnel before construction is set to halt on Friday and put 1,000 construction workers out of a job. Trump froze funding in October.
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, late Thursday called Trump’s suggestion “ridiculous. These naming rights aren’t tradable as part of any negotiations, and neither is the dignity of New Yorkers… The president continues to put his own narcissism over the good-paying union jobs this project provides and the extraordinary economic impact the Gateway tunnel will bring.”
The initiative, which received about $15 billion in federal support under then President Joe Biden, involves repairs to an existing tunnel and the construction of a new one for passenger railroad Amtrak and state commuter lines between New Jersey and Manhattan and the linchpin of rail travel between New York and New Jersey.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul responded to Trump’s reported proposal on social media with a “counteroffer” that depicted Trump Tower in Manhattan renamed as “Hochul Tower.”
Trump has shown a fondness for buildings or programs being named for him.
Since returning to office in January, the Republican president has affixed his name to prominent Washington buildings, a planned class of Navy warships, a visa program for wealthy foreigners, a government-run prescription drug website, and federal savings accounts for children.
In December, the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which Trump filled with allies during a board takeover, added Trump’s name to the institution.
Trump’s name was added in December to the United States Institute of Peace building in Washington, months after his administration seized the nonprofit organization and all but closed it.
Trump in December vowed to overhaul federally owned Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, a major United Airlines hub and the primary international airport for the U.S. capital area, calling it a bad facility.
Legislation has been introduced in Congress by some Republicans to rename Dulles after Trump and many airline officials have told Reuters they believe Trump wants the airport renamed for him. The airport is currently named after John Foster Dulles, who served as U.S. secretary of state under President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s.
In October, the U.S. U.S. Treasury released a draft design for a $1 coin featuring President Donald Trump to commemorate 250 years since the declaration of American independence in 2026.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Michael Perry)
Comments