The winning design to rebuild New York’s Penn Station has Trump’s name and interior design taste all over it.
The new train station will feature gold embellishments and a presidential seal bearing President Donald Trump’s name, according to new renderings obtained by the Gothamist.
The new Penn Station, the hub for Amtrak, NJ Transit, and the Long Island Railroad, will be much brighter than the current dingy and dark train station that commuters have long loathed. The new plan will also not require Madison Square Garden, which sits on top of the station, to move.
But it will also feature Trump’s signature gold embellishments, railings, columns, and escalators, and American flags at the entrance. The new Eighth Avenue entrance features a large “President Donald J. Trump” plaque carved into marble beside a presidential seal.
In true Trump fashion, the White House had gone as far as to pitch renaming the transportation hub “Trump Station,” but the renderings suggest that that did not get confirmed, as it is still named “Pennsylvania Station” in the mockups.
Trump has dismissed those reports that he sought to attach his name to the station as “FAKE NEWS.”
“The naming of PENN Station (I LOVE Pennsylvania, but it is a direct competitor to New York, and ‘eating New York’s lunch!’) to TRUMP STATION, was brought up by certain politicians and construction union heads, not me - IT IS JUST MORE FAKE NEWS!” he wrote on Truth Social on Feb. 16.
The White House, the Department of Transportation, and Amtrak did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Daily Beast.
Amtrak and the DOT announced last week that they tapped Penn Transformation Partners as the “master developer” for Penn Station.
The Trump administration took control over the project from the MTA last year, and Trump has demanded that construction begin by the end of next year.
Local New York officials have criticized the bidding process for its lack of transparency, as the final bidder’s plans, as well as Amtrak’s request for proposals, were all kept secret.
“There was not a single public hearing, no consultation with the MTA or the State and City of New York, and most egregiously, there was no transparency on the cost of this massive undertaking. This was not a selection process. It was a backroom deal dressed up as one, and the only fingerprints on it belong to Donald Trump and his donors,” longtime New York Congressman Jerry Nadler said in a statement.
Several people involved with Penn Transformation Partners also have ties to Trump.
One of the partners is Vornado, an influential real estate group in Manhattan that is run by longtime Trump ally Steve Roth. Construction firms Halmar and Skanska are also involved, and Halmar’s Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, Peter Cipriano, was an advisor to DOT under Trump’s first administration.
