Trump personally involved in fast-tracking comprehensive DC airport overhaul

Washington, D.C.'s Virginia suburbs have two major airports: Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport, and President Donald Trump has targeted the latter for a major makeover (a third airport, Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, is in Maryland). Trump's allies are proposing that one of Dulles' terminals be renamed the "Donald J. Trump Terminal."

But Trump and his allies' ideas for Dulles Airport — which was named after John Foster Dulles, secretary of state under GOP President Dwight D. Eisenhower — go away beyond name changes.

In an article published on February 25, Washington Post reporter Dan Diamond reports that Trump plans to "convene companies again" to "hear updated proposals for redesigning one of the country's most prominent gateways" and "seeks to fast-track changes to a facility he has derided as 'badly designed.'"

Diamond, highlighting his article on X, formerly Twitter, posted, "Trump is personally driving the Dulles changes as he attempts to remake Washington — and seeks to leave a physical legacy. Some of those plans (like the 250-ft arch) are polling poorly. But an idea like nixing Dulles' people movers has broader appeal."

Diamond, in the Post, explains, "Trump, earlier this month, hosted about a half-dozen infrastructure and construction companies in the Oval Office, with executives taking turns pitching the president and Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy on their proposals to overhaul the Washington-area airport, according to four people familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting. The companies — which included AECOM, one of the firms working on the president's White House ballroom project — laid out ideas to change Dulles' layout, build new terminals and do away with the airport's sometimes-notorious shuttles known as people movers, the people said."

Trump's "effort to overhaul Dulles," Diamond notes, "is part of his broader plan to remake the Washington region."

"While some of the president's moves have been controversial, such as his desire to build a new White House ballroom and a 250-foot triumphal arch," Diamond reports, "his early efforts regarding Dulles have won some praise from regular critics…. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which oversees Dulles, has already begun plans to overhaul the airport and phase out the people movers within 15 years…. One of the proposals presented to Trump and Duffy in the Oval Office this month was from Ferrovial Airports and Grimshaw Architects, which proposed constructing a new terminal, saying that the existing Saarinen terminal would be converted into a concessions area."