Trump sought Schumer’s support to rename Dulles, Penn Station after him for tunnel funds: Reports by Alexander Bolton

 The Amazon founder bought the paper to save it. Instead, with a mass layoff, he’s forced it into severe decline.

 

President Trump told Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) last month that he would drop his hold on more than $16 billion in funding for the Gateway tunnel project connecting New York and New Jersey if Schumer agreed to rename Penn Station and Washington Dulles International Airport, according to reports.

Schumer immediately rejected the proposal, explaining to the president that it was beyond his authority to advance the Trump’s unusual request, according to sources cited by Punchbowl News and CNN.

 

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) called the president’s proposal “ridiculous.”

“These naming rights aren’t tradable as part of any negotiations, and neither is the dignity of New Yorkers,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “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.”

Trump met with Schumer in mid-January at the president‘s request to discuss the administration‘s hold on the Gateway tunnel project funding.

 

The New York Democrat at the meeting urged Trump to press Senate Republicans to approve a three-year extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits that expired at the end of 2025.

He also told the president that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids to deport immigrants from Minnesota and other cities are “terrorizing communities,” according to his office. Schumer urged Trump to pull back ICE officers from Minneapolis.

Democrats have reacted angrily to Trump’s decision to add his name to Washington’s famous John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The move has led to several performers pulling out of scheduled events at the venue.

 

Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and other Democrats, such as Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) and Mark Warner (Va.), condemned the president’s attempt to name the center after himself.

Whitehouse, the ranking member of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, released a statement this week protesting the announcement that the Kennedy Center would close for two weeks for renovations.

He accused Trump of “bucking rules and convention” to “commandeer the Kennedy Center as a clubhouse for his friends and political allies.”

The president has also faced backlash over adding his name to the U.S. Institute of Peace and after demolition began on the White House’s East Wing for Trump’s massive ballroom project.