Trump promises Schumer funding for NY tunnel project — if Penn Station and Dulles Airport are renamed after him
Minister Donald Trump Last month, he told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he was finally ready to lift the freeze on billions of dollars in funding for a major New York infrastructure project.
But there was one condition: Schumer had to agree to name New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles International Airport after Trump in exchange for money.
The surprising offer, described by two people familiar with the conversation, was quickly rejected by Schumer, who told the president he did not have the authority to grant such an unorthodox request.
In the weeks since, Trump has continued to withhold more than $16 billion earmarked for the long-planned Gateway project connecting New York and New Jersey via a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River.
Two states now Lawsuit against Trump administration A complaint filed earlier this week alleged the suspension of the fund was unlawful.
Schumer’s spokesman declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Travelers in the Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station in New York on January 23. -Adam Gray/Bloomberg/Getty Images/File
Section, First reported by PunchbowlIt offers a new window into Trump’s ever-expanding efforts to carve out a huge place in American history — and to do so, at least in part. Brands almost everything around him with his name.
Since returning to the White House, the president has launched a number of initiatives bearing the Trump name, including the Trump Gold Card, which offers a high-priced path to citizenship, the TrumpRx website, which offers lower-priced prescription drugs, and a new Trump-class warship aimed at cementing an era of “peace through strength” foreign policy for years to come.
Trump has set his sights on even bigger goals in recent months: adding his name first to the U.S. Institute of Peace and then, more controversially, to Washington’s iconic Kennedy Center.
Still, Trump’s offer to Schumer represented perhaps his most daring move yet; a clear attempt to exploit the future of a massive infrastructure project to fulfill his own personal desires.
The commission responsible for the Gateway tunnel has warned that it will soon be forced to halt work on the project and lay off about 1,000 workers if the Trump administration does not provide the financing it needs.
Construction of the tunnel predates Trump’s return to office, and the federal government has struggled to find a significant portion of the funding needed to complete the tunnel. But Trump moved to stop the project late last year; This decision was suggested by Democratic officials in New Jersey and New York as politically motivated.
Schumer has since played a central role in negotiations to lift the funding freeze. But even with that priority, there’s little the Democrat can do on his own to put Trump’s name on Penn Station or Dulles Airport.
While some conservative lawmakers have already introduced legislation to rename Dulles to “Donald J. Trump International Airport,” the legislation has received little attention so far.
The legislation has not progressed in the GOP-controlled Congress, and as a result, it is unlikely to become law.
For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account at: CNN.com
