Trump announces plans for sprawling Dulles Airport makeover

President Donald Trump announced a sweeping makeover of Dulles International Airport on Wednesday, including the construction of new concourses and the removal of the airport’s aging shuttles known as “people movers.” “We are announcing plans to add more than five million square feet of new or renovated space. We’ll replace the current C and D concourses, which are basic disasters, all the while preserving the iconic original terminal,” Trump said at an event in the Oval Office. Trump said he’d selected the designs “after an extensive review of more than 30 proposals with the top architects anywhere in the world.” The redone airport will include a “magnificent” multi-story parking garage with 32,000 parking spaces. “It’ll be actually the largest garage in the world,” Trump said. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the current “people movers,” which transported travelers through terminals, will be replaced by a faster and more efficient “horseshoe rail system.” He added that the project’s $22.5 billion cost will be picked up by the airlines. Trump said they hoped to have the project completed within two years, and the airlines’ projection for the work was originally 60 years. Trump has been eyeing the project for months. His motorcade took a detour through the northern Virginia airport last October to “assess potential future projects,” the White House said at the time. “We’re also going to rebuild Dulles Airport because it’s not a good airport,” he said at a December Cabinet meeting. “It should be a great airport. It’s not a good airport at all. It’s a terrible airport.” In a news release that day, the Transportation Department said: “Washington Dulles International Airport is known for its dated facilities, inefficient system of people movers that deliver passengers as much as a half mile away from their gates, its moon-rover-like ‘mobile lounges,’ jet fuel smell in the concourses, and a paltry number of gates at the main terminal.” Named for the late Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, the airport was formally dedicated by President John F. Kennedy in 1962. It is one of three Washington-area airports. The administration has previously expressed interest in renaming the airport. Multiple sources told NBC News in February that the Trump administration had asked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for Dulles International Airport and New York’s Penn Station to be named after Trump in exchange for releasing federal funds required to build a long-delayed tunnel between New York and New Jersey. The money was eventually released without such an agreement in place. The real estate mogul-turned-president said he had big plans for the airport back in December. “We’re gonna make that into something really spectacular. We have an amazing plan for it,” he said then. Trump has been heavily involved in various construction and renovation projects around the Washington area in his second term, including building a new ballroom at the White House, adding extensive gold moldings in the Oval Office, renovating the Reflecting Pool at the National Mall and advocating for the construction of a massive arch in the city. His name has also been added to various government properties and projects, including the Institute of Peace. It had also been added to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, but a judge ordered his name to be removed from the facade earlier this year. As of earlier this month, Trump also has an airport named after him: Palm Beach International Airport in Florida was officially renamed as President Donald J. Trump International Airport. “This will soon be one of the Greatest and Most Spectacular Airports anywhere in the World!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on the day of the renaming.