Florida’s plan to rename Palm Beach International Airport after Donald Trump triggered a torrent of abuse from disgusted travelers—including a $30 million bomb threat.
The airport, which is around five miles from the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate, is set to become President Donald J. Trump International Airport on July 1 after Gov. Ron DeSantis, 47, signed the renaming bill in March. The change requires the Federal Aviation Administration to update its charts and databases.
Since the decision, dozens of irate flyers have bombarded the facility’s website with messages, the overwhelming majority of them opposed to the switch, as the news outlet NOTUS reported after obtaining the comment log through a Florida Public Records Act request.
One anonymous message went well beyond venting. Invoking Trump, the writer claimed to have planted explosives inside the airport and aboard a departing aircraft, then demanded $30 million not to set them off, according to the records. It is unclear whether the threat was investigated.
The rest ran the gamut from despairing to obscene. A self-described “Florida Native” vowed on April 2 never to fly through the airport again once it honored a man they branded the most corrupt and incompetent person ever to hold the office of president. Another flyer pledged to make it their life’s mission never to spend a cent there.
Plenty reached for the profanities. Writing on May 5—the day The New York Times published a piece on how Palm Beach had to license Trump’s name—one person called officials “spineless motherf-----s” and accused them of corruption, according to NOTUS. Another rebranded the facility “Palm b---h.”
At least 17 messages referenced pedophilia, pointed nods to Trump’s former friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
Some flyers laid out their exit plans, threatening to drive an hour south to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International or two hours north to Orlando rather than pass through anything bearing the president’s name.
Not everyone was hostile. A self-described “premium domain consultant” named Paul pitched the airport a web address—pdjtia.com—on April 7. And Florida business consultant Jim Schiffler offered up an eight-foot, 5,000-pound granite statue of Trump that he has owned since 2017, which is currently sitting in North Dakota. The airport commission, he said, politely declined.
The renaming arrives as Trump pushes to stamp his name across American life, from the Kennedy Center to paper currency to a new class of Navy warships.
The Daily Beast has contacted Palm Beach County, the office of Gov. DeSantis, and the White House for comment.
