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Palm Beach County signs off on controversial Trump airport trademark deal

Claire Heddles, Miami Herald on

Published in News & Features

MIAMI — Palm Beach County commissioners approved a trademark deal with one of Donald Trump’s family companies to rename the county’s airport after the president in a 4-3 vote Tuesday, with one Democrat backing the plan.

The agreement gives Trump extra power over how his name is used in the airport rebranding, including giving him veto power over how his image and biographical information is used in marketing materials. It also requires airport stores to source airport-branded merchandise from retailers Trump’s companies choose.

All three Republicans on the Palm Beach County Commission backed the agreement during a vote Tuesday, as did Democrat Maria Sachs. Trump already signed the deal on Sunday.

Democratic commissioners Gregg Weiss, Joel Flores and Bobby Powell Jr. voted against the agreement, primarily citing concerns that they didn’t have enough time to review the agreement since they had just received it on Monday.

They were also apprehensive about the fact that there is no termination clause in the agreement, and the county has no way out of it unless there is a change in state law.

Their vote comes after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law in late March forcing the name change, but hinging it on a requirement that the county approve a trademark deal with Trump’s companies.

The company that manages Trump’s trademarks, DTTM Operations LLC, applied for the trademarks for “Donald J. Trump International Airport” and “President Donald J. Trump International Airport” in February. The latter name is what appears in the proposed new logo for the airport.

The approved agreement resembles typical trademark agreements in many ways, according to trademark attorney Josh Gerben. But it also has some unusual elements that could leave the door open for the Trump family to benefit, even as the Trump Organization has promised not to profit from the taxpayer-funded changes.

The agreement is non-exclusive, meaning the Trump family could still profit from selling airport-branded items offsite, according to Gerben, even though they’ve promised not to profit from sales at the airport. Trump’s company also gets to make a list of “approved retailers” from which airport stores have to buy their airport-branded merchandise.

 

“Normally a license agreement says that the goods have to be of a certain quality. It doesn’t say that you have to purchase them from a retailer that we’re approving them from,” Gerben said.

Palm Beach County Attorney David Ottey told commissioners Tuesday that clause was included to protect “quality” and that the Trump family won’t benefit, but conceded that the county does not yet know who those approved retailers will be.

Tuesday’s vote was the first time county commissioners weighed in on Palm Beach International Airport’s name change.

The Republican commissioners backing the agreement said it was necessary to ensure the county was at the negotiating table about the airport renaming, since the change is coming from state lawmakers above them.

County administrators asked state lawmakers earlier this year for the trademark deal requirement to protect the county from lawsuits, after raising various legal concerns. The county also flagged safety concerns tied to the name change to state lawmakers in December

Many of those hinge on whether the state agrees to pay the $5.5 million the county says it will take to implement the name change without siphoning money from other projects.

The Florida Legislature has not passed a budget for next year yet; they’re set to meet for a special session to do so in the coming weeks. County staff assured commissioners the money is coming, and that it won’t fall on the county to foot the bill for the changes.

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©2026 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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