Naming Things After Dear Leader
Now an airport.
ABC News reports: Florida Gov. DeSantis signs bill to rename Palm Beach airport after Trump.
Palm Beach International Airport, which President Donald Trump flies in and out of when heading to his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, is likely set to be renamed in his honor.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday, renaming it the President Donald J. Trump International Airport.
According to a release from DeSantis’ office, the governor signed a bill from the legislature related to “Commercial Service Airports.” That bill, which passed the Florida House and Senate in February, includes the provision that “‘Palm Beach International Airport,’ shall be renamed as the ‘President Donald J. Trump International Airport,’ subject to approval of the Federal Aviation Administration” and, per the bill, rights agreements.
The law is set to go into effect on July 1, according to the state legislature.
Taken in the abstract, naming an airport after a president is relatively normal. After all, we have JFK in New York and Reagan National in DC, to name but two. However, I hasten to add: Kennedy had to be assassinated to get an airport named after him, and Reagan had to wait almost a decade for his honor. George H. W. Bush, I would note, did not have to wait quite as long for Houston to rename its airport in his honor (here’s a list of all of them).
These days, I guess waiting to be at least out of office is passé.
Even before the Trumpification of America, I was starting to sour on naming things after people. Did we learn nothing about all the Confederate names? Recent revelations about César Chávez underscore the point. And from a democratic values point of view, the valorization of mere politicians, especially those who have done nothing extraordinary, is problematic and distasteful.
There is an argument to be made about building a shared, national mythos that would honor the Founders and people like Lincoln. And if we are going to venerate, wait a bit, shall we? I can understand the argument for the FDR memorial, but it wasn’t dedicated until over 50 years after his death. Again, all of this, to include normative debates about who does, and does not, deserve such honors, is a separate issue.
But let’s be clear: naming things after a sitting president is a way to unhealthily elevate a politician. It is a source of power to be treated in such a manner, and it also has the effect of inflating the ego and self-importance of the officeholder in question. Again, it is the kind of thing we see in authoritarian government, especially of the more petty personalistic type, rather than in healthy democracies.
Not to put too fine a point on it, given that No Kings was this weekend, but this is the kind of thing one does for a monarch, both as a symbol of their power, but also because part of the monarch’s job is to be a symbolic representation of the nation. While it is true that the US President is the head of state, he is a transitory figure who is not vested in being a national symbol.
Trump, however, wants to be treated like a monarch. He wants to be honored now and to be seen as a gold-plated symbol of America.
This is neither in the spirit of democracy nor is it healthy for the president to be this self-centered.
The NYT has a list of Everything With Trump’s Name, Likeness and Signature. While I have covered some of this, I haven’t noted it all. It is a pretty stunning list.
Again: presidents are transitory. They are not living symbols of the country. This is why we have long had a combination of legal and tradition-based prohibitions against things like sitting (or even living) presidents’ faces on coins and stamps, or their names on buildings.
All of this is an assault on our prevailing political culture and is an unhealthy way in which our politics are deeply presidentialized.
Maybe that Florida airport could in a few years change its name to something less distasteful, like Cesspit Crapbag Airport.
Don’t worry. I am sure the Federal Aviation Administration will slow walk this out of a keen sense of propriety.
Really, if they wait a couple of years, they can reuse the lettering from the Kennedy Center.
[I’ll show myself out.]
It may have taken a decade after his presidency to name Reagan National, but it was in his lifetime (1911-2004). This naming business is another thing we can blame on GOPs and their billionaire supporters. The convention against naming things after living politicians pretty much held until a well funded activist group went around the country lobbying to name things after Reagan as soon as he was out of office. I guess it’s better, actually, that they waste their money on vanity projects.
This renaming included in my then home, Cincinnati, the Ronald Reagan Cross County Highway (renamed 1993). The Reagan Cross County didn’t actually cross the county. Appropriately, it stopped short of pulling eminent domain in the upper class suburbs.
The Navy pulled the neat trick. They named a carrier after HW Bush, while W was in office. Since it would invariably be called “USS Bush” or “the Bush” they could pretend to avoid naming after a serving prez while sucking up to a serving prez.
Apparently we need a presidential character test to weed out those who are unfit for office, including profoundly narcissistic or (bonus: and) unethically corrupt people. (I know, this is not a practical idea, but so much needs fixing in the post-Trump era.)
I would be willing to name a nuclear waste dump after Trump.
@gVOR10: I don’t disagree. As noted in the OP, waiting at least 50 years to honor FDR was far more reasonable to naming a host of things after living politicians.
In fairness, it’s not just Reps (but yes, mostly Reps), as the airport in Little Rock is named after the Clintons.
This elides an important fact: the reason National was named after Reagan was to poke a stick in the eye of the Air Traffic Controllers, whose union Reagan crushed. There is nothing a Republican despises more than the little guys working together to challenge the powerful, and renaming the airport was a reminder to such trash not to get above their station.
I do make some distinction between Federal actions, like memorials in DC and the renaming of DCA and the International Trade Center after Reagan, and local ones like the renaming of the Little Rock and Houston airports after Clinton and Bush. While I was no fan of the Clintons, Arkansans can claim bragging rights over a two-term president and a secretary of state. Putting their name on the airport at sleepy Little Rock elevates the city and the airport. Houston is a huge city and doesn’t really need its profile raised; still, a quasi-native son who became VP and POTUS is a big deal. If Palm Beach wants to name its tiny little airport after the most famous local resident, I’m okay with that. But wait until after he’s out of office. (And, just maybe, until the Epstein matter is fully resolved.)
“But let’s be clear: naming things after a sitting president is a way to unhealthily elevate a politician. It is a source of power to be treated in such a manner, and it also has the effect of inflating the ego and self-importance of the officeholder in question.” – Agreed
What I don’t get is how no matter what this guy does or how he shifts his positions or even how he affects the economy, his followers do not break. When it does break (and I hope it does), whats going to happen to all of these homages to dear leader?
@Moosebreath: Nope, those have utility. I’m unwilling to name anything useful after the rapist bigot. Had not seen the “Trump Train” (and a couple of those other blatant attempts at corruption). What a worthless loser.
People are going to stamp currency that has his signature with “rapist” and “thief” and “fuck this guy” until they’re out of circulation. Trump coins? I’m not sure if the best outcome is that they don’t sell at all, or that they sell only to people auctioning off the rights to melt them down for a good cause. We’ll be expected to burn taxpayer dollars protecting his grave because otherwise it will become a horrific human waste site, and everybody knows it.
Then there’s the lawsuit about the park passes, which are blatantly illegal and will have to be replaced. Those of us who bought one with the diseased cunt’s visage will get to return them, but it’s likely to cost the National Park Service. Since the act was performed at the direction of Doug Burnum, I hope they can extract it from that bootlicking shit personally.
Airports? Meh. The worst part of that is trademarking the name and the possibility that the state will have to “rent” it – yet more corruption to add to the pile.
@ptfe:
Overwrite it with a broad black marker. Redact it, just like his name in the Epstein files.