Trump airport branding deal opens new route to profit for family

It was a week in which one prominent name in aviation, Spirit Airlines, disappeared, killed in the company’s own admission by high fuel prices resulting from Donald Trump’s war in Iran.

Within days, however, another moniker was already flying high in industry circles: the president’s own.

The newly-branded President Donald J Trump international airport, less than five miles from Mar-a-Lago, his gilded waterfront Florida mansion, joins a glut of other entities, including passports, street signs, national parks passes, performing arts centers and golden immigration visas, retitled to satiate the commander-in-chief’s addiction to aggrandizement.

Naturally, Tuesday’s vote by a surprisingly bipartisan group of commissioners to hand over trademark and commercial rights of the former Palm Beach international airport to the county’s most notorious resident comes with another lucrative enrichment opportunity for Trump and his family.

Analysts predict the president is likely to net millions from the unorthodox legal agreement between the county and DTTM Operations llc, his Delaware-based company that oversees licensing, marketing and intellectual property.

Under the leadership of Donald Trump Jr, the president’s son, the company, part of the wider Trump Organization, has assumed numerous rights and advantages that the analysts say are unusual for a contract of this nature, irrespective that it prohibits “direct financial compensation” from goods sold at the airport.

For starters, Trump gets to choose exactly which vendors will manufacture and supply whatever branded merchandise is sold there; meanwhile, the non-exclusive agreement does allow the Trump org to cash in on any of that merchandise sold away from the airport, including on his own online store that already hawks a wide array of Trump-themed wares, from the glitzy to the gaudy.

He can also monetize the airport’s new name in any way he sees fit; and can license the trademark to any third party of his choosing.

And he has final approval over how his name, image and likeness are portrayed and presented at the airport, meaning any photographs, written descriptions or biographical references to Trump can be produced by or for him with no fear of pushback.

“The clause effectively limits the county’s editorial discretion, ensuring that portrayals of Trump, as both an individual and a former president, align with his personal preferences,” Josh Gerben, a nationally recognized trademark attorney with no connection to the agreement, said.

Gerben studied the agreement, signed by Trump last weekend and endorsed in a slender vote by the Palm Beach commission on Tuesday, and found several elements to be “unusual”, not least what Trump stands to gain in exchange for allowing the airport to bear his name.

“Normally when you have an honorary naming of something like this, there may be some agreement with the family, but usually it’s just, ‘we’re bestowing this honor upon you, we’re going to call the airport this’, and that’s kind of the end of the story, right?” he said.

“The person who’s getting the license is the only one that can now use these trademarks.

“But in this case, the [Trump] family filed trademarks. Trump’s board is telling the county, ‘No, you’re a non-exclusive licensee’, which means that they are retaining the right to use the marks themselves in whatever capacity they may want.”

Gerben said Trump Org’s options were virtually limitless.

“The questions the public should ask here are why Trump’s board needs that level of control, and are they going to be directing funds to somebody?” he said.

“Maybe they don’t make money directly, but they certainly have the ability to direct some business, to curry favor with a company by sending business their way.”

The commission hearing on Tuesday was just the latest step in a process that began formally in February when Trump’s lawyers filed trademark applications for the new airport name, parallel to Florida’s Republican lawmakers advancing legislation to mandate completion of the transformation by 1 July.

At the time, opponents condemned what they saw as a “misguided” act of fealty to Trump by Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, and criticized the speed at which the name change was being implemented without consulting residents or their elected representatives.

“It’s misguided and unfair that the Republican-controlled Florida legislature ignored the voices of Palm Beach county,” Lois Frankel, the Democratic US congresswoman whose district covers a large swathe of Palm Beach county, said in a statement.

“Decisions about naming major infrastructure should wait until after an honoree’s service has concluded – and should include meaningful input from the local residents and communities most directly affected.”

More curious was that Trump’s legal agreement was approved by the Palm Beach county commission this week only narrowly, the deciding vote in a 4-3 decision cast by Maria Sachs, a Democratic member, after a contentious debate while the six other members split along party lines.

County staff told the hearing that failure to comply with the law could put transportation funding and grant assurances from the state at risk. DeSantis has previously removed elected representatives, including two state attorneys and several school board members, who have crossed him.

Sachs defended her vote in a statement to the Guardian.

“The board did not vote to change the name of the airport,” she said. “Our vote was limited to approving a licensing agreement necessary to protect the county from trademark liability, and to ensure the lawful and uninterrupted operation of a critical public asset.

“This decision not only reflects good governance, but was supported by county administration, county staff, legal counsel, as well as the airport authority. It was a practical, responsible step to remain in compliance with Florida statutes.”

One person who was celebrating the agreement this week was Eric Trump, the president’s second son, who posted on X that he was “extremely proud” to share the airport’s new logo bearing his father’s name, with the image, almost inevitably, framed in gold.

“There is no person more deserving of this incredible honor than @realDonaldTrump! Congratulations Dad!” he wrote.

“Looking forward to seeing flights landing at ‘DJT’ very very soon”.

The reference to “DJT”, however, refers to one element of the rebranding that looks destined to remain outside Trump’s control: the three-letter code allocated to every airport by the International Air Transport Association.

Although the name Palm Beach international airport will no longer be used, it will continue to be known as PBI unless or until legislation passes to enact such a change, and the Federal Aviation Administration can update systems and charts, according to the aviation news website Avsn.