(Adnkronos) – After the Kennedy Center, Donald Trump also wants New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles Airport named after him, otherwise he threatens not to release funds for the railway tunnel between New York and New Jersey. Politico reveals this, citing informed sources who explain that Trump administration officials communicated these conditions to the Senate’s Democratic minority leader, Chuck Schumer.
The Democratic leader rejected the request, sources add: “there’s nothing to exchange, the president blocked the funding and can reactivate it with a snap of his fingers,” a person close to the New York senator reported, referring to the fact that last October Trump blocked 16 billion in federal funds destined for the Gateway project, arguing the need to evaluate whether inclusion and diversity protection practices, hated and banned by the current administration, had played a role in the awarding of tenders and contracts for the project.
Politico’s revelations come just hours before today’s hearing where a federal judge will hear the appeal to request the release of federal funds, without which a thousand workers risk losing their jobs. New York’s other senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, called Trump’s request “ridiculous, these naming requests cannot be part of a negotiation, nor can the dignity of New Yorkers,” stating that “the president continues to put his narcissism before the good jobs this project ensures and the extraordinary economic impact the Gateway tunnel will have.”
