#kirsten-gillibrand
2 entries with this tag
Trump Unveiled a $22.5 Billion Overhaul of Dulles Airport — and Around the Same Time Tried to Trade $16 Billion in Frozen Hudson-Tunnel Funding for Naming Rights, Offering to Unfreeze It Only if Dulles and New York's Penn Station Were Both Renamed After Him, While a GOP Bill Moves to Make Dulles the "Donald J. Trump International Airport" and the Cost per Passenger Jumps Nearly Ninefold
On August 6, 2026, Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a $22.5 billion, decade-long overhaul of Washington Dulles International Airport — ripping out the widely disliked "people mover" mobile lounges in favor of a U-shaped passenger train, a central walking tunnel, new concourses and gates, and a 32,000-space parking garage, while preserving Eero Saarinen's landmark 1962 terminal. Parts of that are a genuine improvement, and the airlines, not federal taxpayers, would fund it through Airports Authority bonds. But two things wrap the project in the same self-dealing that defines this presidency. First: separately, Trump reportedly offered to unfreeze $16 billion in federal Gateway Hudson River tunnel funding — money he froze in October 2025, stalling one of the nation's most critical infrastructure projects and roughly 1,000 jobs — only if Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would support renaming Dulles Airport AND New York's Penn Station after Trump. Schumer rejected it, saying he has no authority to rename them; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called it "ridiculous," adding "these naming rights aren't tradable in any negotiations, nor is the dignity of New Yorkers." Second: a bill by Rep. Addison McDowell (R-NC), with GOP cosponsors, would rename Dulles — currently named for Eisenhower's Secretary of State John Foster Dulles — the "Donald J. Trump International Airport." And the overhaul's cost lands on travelers: Dulles' cost per passenger, about $10 today, is projected to reach $90.64 by 2035, a figure airlines typically pass through in fares. It is the Palm Beach airport playbook at national scale: a real project used as a stage for putting the president's name on the country's infrastructure — and, this time, holding a $16 billion tunnel hostage to get it.
Trump Bragged from the Oval Office That He Dropped Crypto Investigations — "You're Lucky I'm President!" — While His Financial Disclosure Shows He Made $1.4 Billion from Crypto, His Memecoin Lost Investors $3.8 Billion, He Pardoned the Binance Founder Who Pleaded Guilty to Money Laundering, and His SEC Chair Dropped Cases Against Companies That Donated to His Inauguration
President Trump told cryptocurrency figures from the Oval Office: "Every time I see a crypto guy where they dropped an investigation, I said, 'You're lucky I'm president!'" His 2025 financial disclosure, filed days earlier, shows he made $1.4 billion from crypto — $636 million from the $TRUMP memecoin and nearly $800 million from World Liberty Financial, a venture he co-founded with his sons. Meanwhile, nearly one million investors who bought the $TRUMP memecoin lost a combined $3.81 billion as the token crashed 97% from its peak. Trump profited whether the price went up or down — he collected returns whenever anyone traded the tokens, which he promoted on Truth Social. His SEC chair Paul Atkins — who holds $6 million in personal crypto assets — dropped or dismissed at least a dozen crypto enforcement cases, including meritorious litigation against Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken. Crypto-related enforcement fell 60%. Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the Binance founder who pleaded guilty to money laundering in 2023. Binance then deployed engineers to build World Liberty Financial's stablecoin and holds 86% of all USD1 tokens. Companies whose cases were dropped — Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple, Robinhood, Crypto.com — had each donated at least $1 million to Trump's inauguration. At the 2025 memecoin gala dinner, 19 of the top 25 holders were likely foreign nationals. Justin Sun, a Chinese billionaire facing SEC fraud charges that were paused by the Trump administration, held the top spot. Freight Technologies bought $20 million in tokens explicitly to "advocate for fair trade." Rep. Greg Casar: "The Trump family has made over $5 BILLION in corrupt crypto deals. Now Trump is openly bragging that his government won't investigate cryptocurrency-related crimes. Corruption, plain and simple." Senator Gillibrand proposed banning elected officials from issuing memecoins. The president of the United States stood in the Oval Office and boasted about dropping investigations into the industry that made him a billionaire.