The Gateway tunnel construction project is one of the nation’s most important infrastructure investments. The $16 billion Hudson River endeavor, one of the largest public works projects in recent memory, would connect New York and New Jersey via a pair of train tubes that would benefit the entire region.
It’s also run out of money — not because of mismanagement or budget overruns, but because Donald Trump and his team announced last fall that they would pause the federal funds that had already been approved for the project. (The ostensible reason: The Republican administration wants to know whether contracts were awarded with “diversity, equity and inclusion” considerations in mind.)
The commission overseeing the endeavor has made it clear that unless the White House agrees to an immediate change in direction, work on the project will cease and 1,000 workers will be laid off.
The good news is that the president recently signaled a willingness to release the resources that would allow work to continue. The bad news is the specific condition he has in mind. Punchbowl News reported:
President Donald Trump offered to release the funding for the massive Gateway infrastructure project if Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer agrees to support renaming both Washington-Dulles International Airport and New York’s Penn Station after Trump.
The Trump administration directly made the request of Schumer, according to four sources familiar with the situation.
Although the White House and the Democratic senator’s office declined to comment, MaddowBlog has independently verified the Punchbowl News report.
For those keeping score, Trump and his allies have now applied the president’s name to the Kennedy Center and to the Institute of Peace, announced the construction of “Trump-class” battleships, unveiled a commemorative legal-tender coin that will feature his face on both sides and have launched “Trump Gold Cards,” “Trump Accounts” and “TrumpRx” (the government’s new drug-pricing website). By some accounts, the president wants the forthcoming White House ballroom to be named after him, too.
But wait, there’s more. Trump wants a football stadium in the nation’s capital to be named after him; the nation’s next-generation fighter jet will have an “F-47” designation in honor of him (he is the nation’s 47th president); and training for incoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents was reduced from 50 days to 47 days for the same reason.
The Republican also recently said it’s “not too late” to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico (which he has attempted to rename once already) to the “Gulf of Trump.”
Now, evidently, he wants Dulles Airport and Penn Station to be named after him, too.
This latest example is qualitatively different from the others for one reason: His attempt to hold taxpayer funds for the Gateway tunnel project hostage is the only example in which his commemorative crusade could actually hurt the public.
The president’s pitch is, for all intents and purposes, an attempt at extortion: If Democrats want to save the infrastructure project and prevent the job losses, they must indulge the president’s obsession with self-aggrandizement and self-glorification.
Articles of impeachment have been introduced over less.
“This is ridiculous,” Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said in a statement. “These naming rights aren’t tradable as part of any negotiations, and neither is the dignity of New Yorkers. At a time when New Yorkers are already being crushed by high costs under the Trump tariffs, the president continues to put his own narcissism over the good-paying union jobs this project provides and the extraordinary economic impact the Gateway tunnel will bring.”
She added, “I demand that the president put people first and unfreeze this project and all the others his administration has been holding hostage for his personal gain.”
