Inside Palm Beach County's newly signed Trump trademark deal for airport renaming

Claire Heddles, Miami Herald on May 4, 2026

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MIAMI — Palm Beach County commissioners will take their first public vote Tuesday on the renaming of Palm Beach International Airport after Donald Trump, now that county officials have reached a tentative trademark deal with the president’s companies following weeks of negotiations.

The controversial deal is unusual: other airports named after presidents don’t have trademarks owned by private companies. Trump’s companies and Palm Beach County administrators have argued the trademark agreement is necessary to protect the county from lawsuits, not for private profit.

A copy of the agreement signed by Trump Sunday and reviewed by the Miami Herald, however, shows it could leave openings for Trump’s businesses and family members to benefit from the taxpayer-funded airport name change.

For one, the agreement is non-exclusive to Palm Beach County. While Trump’s companies agreed not to receive royalties or revenue for the sale of Trump-branded items at the airport, the non-exclusivity clause leaves an opening within the agreement for Trump’s companies to sell airport-branded items off-site for profit, according to trademark attorney Josh Gerben.

Trump’s company also gets to make a list of “approved retailers” from which airport stores have to buy their airport-branded merchandise. If the county or any retail business want to sell products with the airport’s name on it, they have to purchase those products “exclusively and directly from such entities designated by Licensor.”

The licensor in this case is DTTM Operations, LLC, which manages Trump’s trademarks and secured the trademark for “Donald J. Trump International Airport” in February. Donald Trump Jr. is the president of DTTM, according to his signature on the draft agreement.

The agreement states that while Trump and his affiliates can’t profit from the purchase or sale of these Trump airport branded items, they do have the power of determining who gets to manufacture them.

“That’s also unusual,” Gerben said. “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.”

Another notable provision in the agreement gives Trump veto power over how his biography is presented at the airport, ensuring he can strike down information he finds unflattering.

The county is allowed to use Trump’s name, image and biographical information to market and promote the airport, according to the agreement, but Trump’s companies get to approve or deny any of these uses beforehand.

“It’s not just a non-partisan individual that’s going to be able to write marketing materials or talk about Donald Trump. It’s going to be him and his organizations getting to control the messaging here,” Gerben said.

Many of the other details of the agreement are similar to typical commercial trademark agreements, he said. The agreement proposes an official eagle-centric logo for the airport that looks like a pared-down version of the presidential seal.

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to questions about the agreement. Palm Beach County Administrator Joseph Abruzzo said tomorrow’s commission vote on the deal is key to the airport renaming: “Commissioners have to agree, however, we are required by state law to get (a deal) done.”

Emails obtained by the Miami Herald between Palm Beach County administrators and state lawmakers late last year show that the county was concerned that the airport renaming “confers a commercial benefit upon the president and his companies” and questioned whether the county should be compensated for handing free publicity over to Trump.

The county raised a litany of other safety and legal concerns in December, before lawmakers approved the bill or Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law. Many of those issues were mitigated by the requirement added to the bill that the county reach a trademark deal with Trump’s companies, county administrators told the Herald.

DeSantis signed the law forcing the name change in late March, but it only takes effect if the county reaches a deal for the trademark.

Some of the county’s safety concerns, however, still 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, like “roof and elevator replacement.” 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.

Palm Beach County commissioners have not previously taken a public vote or position on the new law forcing them to rename the airport — meaning Tuesday’s vote on the trademark deal will be the first time the local commissioners will publicly address the planned Trump tribute.

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