Trump wants his name on airports, tunnels, and just about everything in America. Here’s why that’s a problem for democracy, public trust, and the norms that keep the presidency separate from personal gain.

Apparently Trump has been threatening to withhold federal funds from the New York/New Jersey "Gateway Project" (where they want to build a new tunnel under the Hudson River in order to alleviate some of the congested traffic) ... unless they rename the Penn Station in New York City and/or the Dulles Airport near Washington, DC, after him. Yikes! Thankfully, a federal judge quickly shut that down and forced the federal government to release the funds. Link

On a somewhat unrelated note, the Florida State House recently passed a bill to name the Palm Beach International Airport, which is close to Trump's residence in Mar-a-lago, after Trump. Now, to be clear, I do want to emphasize that the Florida state legislature apparently decided to do this on this own. Because ... well ... Florida. 'Nuff said. Link

Now, to spice things up a bit, it turns out that Trump and his team recently filed a trademark claim on the name "Trump International Airport"! How interesting ... Link

My issues with this are twofold. First of all, typically in American history, we wait until the President has been long retired or passed away before bestowing honors upon them. Case in point, the Reagan International Airport. That was renamed in 1998, ten years after Reagan ended his two terms as President. And it was done because of the sheer impact that Reagan had on the American psyche (good and bad), such as being the driving force to end the Cold War. And even with somebody as beloved and honored as Reagan, they still waited ten years until after he had retired. That's what Americans do. You will note the lack of buildings or structures named after Carter, Bush (both father and son), Clinton, Obama, and Biden. That's because they're still alive or only died recently.

Secondly, there's this pesky part of the U.S. Constitution called the Emolument Clause (Link ). In layman's terms, it strictly forbids the President from personally profiting off being President. Now, I won't deny that many previous presidents have seen their net worth increase while in office, but no one has done it quite to the extreme that Trump has. Sources say that Trump's net worth increased by anywhere between $1.5 and $4 billion in this past year alone! That's unheard of.

And he's done it by slapping his brand all over the picture. See that AI picture at the beginning of this podcast? See the MAGA hat, the Trump phone, the Trump bible, and the Trump sneakers? All of those are actual, real things that Trump has sold based on his role as President (and I didn't even include his cryptocurrency scams).

What is really concerning to me is the fact that Trump has worked so hard over the past decade to integrate himself and his name into the fabric of "America." Historically, the image of "America" (ya know, the flag, the bald eagle, apple pie, the Statue of Liberty, Uncle Sam, all that stuff) has been firmly separated from the image of the President. Those are two separate functions. However, Trump has worked furiously to slap his name and image all over America (such as putting his name on the Kennedy Performance Arts Center) and to make it so that he is the face of America.

Not to worry you, but historically whenever a person becomes closely entwined with the national identity ... it doesn't fare well for that country's status as a democratic country. I don't need to give examples here. There's plenty of real-world examples, both in the present day and throughout history, to look at.

That's what alarmed me so much about this story. It's scary that Trump is so hellbent on putting his brand all over America so that he can personally profit from it, and that so many MAGA supporters are perfectly fine with that and support it full throated. When allowed to continue, that almost never ends well.

We have to take a firm stance here and tell Trump ... NO!