QUID PRO QUO

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The president reportedly asked for Penn Station and Dulles Airport to be renamed after him in exchange for infrastructure funding.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is hitting back after the president’s latest attempts to rename major institutions after himself.

President Donald Trump claimed the New York senator offered to rename New York’s Penn Station and Washington, D.C’s Dulles International Airport after the president during a press gaggle on Friday. The New York senator refuted Trump’s claims in an X post almost immediately.

“Absolute lie,” Schumer wrote. “He knows it. Everyone knows it. Only one man can restart the project and he can restart it with the snap of his fingers.”

Various outlets reported that the White House proposed the naming scheme in exchange for funding the Gateway Program in New York.

“Chuck Schumer suggested that to me, about changing the name of Penn Station to Trump Station,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on Friday.

“Dulles Airport is really separate. Dulles Airport is really not too involved with Congress,” the president continued. “It’s a separate kind of a deal, as you know. But it was suggested to me by numerous people, unions, Democrats, Republicans, a lot of people suggested. Nothing’s been done on that.”

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The Trump Administration previously suspended $18 billion in funds for New York City infrastructure projects last October amid the government shutdown.

White House budget director Russell Vought had said at the time that the move was to “ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles.” Vought added that this would specifically impact Gateway’s Hudson Tunnel Project, which will create nine miles of new passenger rail tracks between New York and New Jersey.

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Despite the Gateway’s efforts to cooperate with federal requirements, its representatives said the funding has not been released. The Gateway Development Commission filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Feb. 2, alleging breach of contract.

On Friday, the program announced the temporary suspension of the Hudson Tunnel Project, which is sustained primarily with federal grants and funds. This pause will result in the immediate loss of nearly 1,000 jobs, the development commission said.

“For more than two years the hardworking men and women building the Hudson Tunnel Project have not missed a day of work,” Gateway Development Commission CEO Tom Prendergast said in a press release. “That will change today, because the federal Administration continues to withhold funding for this vital investment in our nation’s rail infrastructure. After spending more than $1 billion, and countless hours of hard work, on this project, we will be left with empty construction sites in New York and New Jersey.”

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The Gateway Development Commission declined to comment on Trump’s reported renaming ultimatum.

This alleged quid pro quo that the White House suggested is the latest attempt by Trump to rename significant places after himself. Last year, the president stuck his name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, despite not getting approval from Congress. It was also recently revealed that the president originally wanted to rechristen the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Trump.

A bill proposing that Dulles Airport be renamed to Donald J. Trump International Airport was also introduced by GOP Rep. Addison McDowell in January. It has not yet moved forward to a House vote.

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