'The guy’s a criminal': Former Republican explains his suit to keep Trump off his building
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A banner of U.S. President Donald Trump hangs on the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., April 6, 2026. REUTERS Kevin Lamarque
Airline pilot and former Republican George Poncy says he was furious when he discovered Republican Florida Gov. Ron Desantis planned to slap the name “Donald Trump” on his Palm Beach International Airport.
“Well, the guy’s a criminal,” said Poncy, speaking to the Miami New Times about Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. “I don’t know anything that’s named after a criminal. There’s no Lucky Luciano Bridge or Jeffrey Epstein Highway. It’s insane. It is. It’s not much more complicated than that.”
The Times reports Poncy filed a lawsuit in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, arguing that Desantis and the state has “unlawfully stripped” the county of its home rule authority by mandating the name change.
The name change to the “Donald J. Trump International Airport” arose from a bill in the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature describing Trump as “the most consequential president of our lifetime,” but that’s not the way 83-year-old Poncy sees it.
“Nobody stands up to the guy, ever. And so somebody should try,” said Poncy, who says he has been a Republican long before Trump first ran for office.
The president is eager to put his name on buildings, including the now renamed “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts," which accelerated the trend of artists canceling their scheduled performances at the venue before Trump finally closed it. He has also hung his face on large banners draping at least three buildings since getting re-elected to office.
These include the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor and the Department of Agriculture.