Will Trump profit from Palm Beach airport being renamed after him? What we know

In May 2026, Florida's Palm Beach County signed an agreement with U.S. President Donald Trump's family business to rename Palm Beach County International Airport after him. On May 5, his son Eric Trump shared the official logo for the newly named President Donald J. Trump International Airport on X. 

Per The New York Times, the new name will take effect on July 1, after the Federal Aviation Administration makes administrative changes.

Numerous social media users claimed this deal would result in financial gains for Trump and his family, specifically in connection to merchandise featuring the airport's new name. Snopes readers also asked us to confirm whether the renaming would "profit Trump." One post on Facebook stated that under the agreement: 

Airport stores would be forced to buy branded merchandise only from Trump-approved retailers

Trump's company gets control over who manufactures those products

Trump gets veto power over how his biography is presented in airport materials

And thanks to a loophole, Trump-linked entities could still profit off airport-branded merchandise sold off-site

A close examination of the agreement Trump signed revealed a few possible financial benefits for Trump and his businesses. According to Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney and legal commentator who CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times, and the Miami Herald consulted, Trump could use loopholes for monetary gain. However, such an agreement between a living president and an airport was unprecedented, and it remains to be seen how much money he could actually make.

In February 2026, the Trump Organization filed an application to trademark the use of Trump's name on airports, but said it did not plan to charge a fee. According to The Associated Press, the application also sought exclusive rights to use Trump's name on related things found at the airport, from shuttle buses to umbrellas, travel bags and flight suits. The AP cited a Trump Organization statement saying, "the President and his family will not receive any royalty, licensing fee, or financial consideration whatsoever from the proposed airport renaming" and said the application was protection against "bad actors."

Two of Trump's sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., have formally led the Trump Organization's operations since Trump's first term as president.

We should note that the the agreement, a PDF of which is available through Palm Beach County's website, names both DTTM Operations, LLC, which manages Trump's trademarks on behalf of the Trump Organization, and Trump himself as licensor. The licensee is Palm Beach County. 

Snopes reached out to Gerben as well as to numerous other legal experts, the Trump Organization and the White House, and will update this post as we get more information. The White House referred us to the Trump Organization, which has not responded to our questions as of this writing.

Will airport stores only buy branded merchandise from Trump-approved entities?

Per the agreement's Section 2.9, Trump will be able to control which entities airport stores can buy branded merchandise from. It states (emphasis ours):

To preserve the goodwill of the Licensed Mark and ensure genuine and high quality products, to the extent Licensee (or any third party retail business operating on Airport property) ("Airport Merchandise Retailer") desires to sell retail products or merchandise bearing the Airport Name ("Airport Merchandise"), which shall not be required under this Agreement, they shall purchase such Airport Merchandise exclusively and directly from such entities designated by Licensor ("Merchandise Entity").

According to the Miami Herald, Gerben said that such a clause is unusual: "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."

We should note that the same clause of the agreement also states that neither Trump nor any of his affiliates can receive royalties, fees or revenue from the sale of this merchandise: "In no event shall Licensor or Trump, or any of their affiliates in which they have ownership or an economic interest, receive any royalties, fees or revenue from the purchase or sale of any such Airport Merchandise."

In sum, Trump will be able to control who manufactures or provides branded merchandise being sold in the airport, but a clause also states that any entity in which he would have an economic interest cannot make earnings off such transactions. 

Can Trump control how his biographical materials are presented in airport marketing?

Per Section 2.8 in the trademark agreement, Trump or DTTM will have the power to approve or deny proposed uses of his likeness, image and biographical materials connected to marketing of the airport. The agreement states:

In addition to the Licensed Mark, Licensee shall also have the right to use the approved name, likeness, image and biographical information of President Donald J. Trump solely in connection with the marketing, advertisement and promotion of the Airport (the "Trump NIL"). Licensor shall approve or deny each proposed use of the Trump NIL in writing within thirty (30) calendar days of receiving a request for approval, time being of the essence. In the event the proposed use is denied, Licensor shall specifically identify the reasons for the denial in detail in its written response. 

According to The Guardian, Gerben said, "The clause effectively limits the county's editorial discretion, ensuring that portrayals of Trump, as both an individual and a former president, align with his personal preferences." 

Can Trump still profit off airport-branded merchandise sold outside the airport?

The agreement is "non-exclusive" to Palm Beach County. Section 2.1 states:

Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, Licensor hereby grants to Licensee a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, fully paid for license to use the Licensed Mark as the Airport Name solely in connection with the Licensed Uses.

A non-exclusive license allows the licensee to use the intellectual property, but the licensor can grant the same rights to other parties and continue to use the intellectual property. According to the Miami Herald, Gerben said that this would leave a loophole for Trump's companies to sell airport-branded items off-site for profit. 

"The questions the public should ask here are why Trump's board needs that level of control, and are they going to be directing funds to somebody? ... Maybe they don't make money directly, but they certainly have the ability to direct some business, to curry favor with a company by sending business their way," Gerben reportedly told The Guardian. 

The first page of the agreement also states, "The Licensor is prohibited from receiving royalties, fees, or revenue from the purchase or sale of any such merchandise by County or airport retailers." We have reached out to numerous experts to determine whether this permits Trump's companies to obtain revenue from other sources outside the County or airport retailers. The agreement notes that Trump granted the license "royalty-free," meaning he would receive no compensation or fees from the licensee. 

Gerben also pointed out to the Miami Herald that other airports named after former presidents did not have such trademark agreements with private companies run by their families. In an interview with CNN, he said: 

It looks more like a business deal than an honorary naming. [...] Typically when you have an honorary naming of an airport, the individual getting honored has not gone out and registered trademarks that are then getting licensed back to the airport. If you look at JFK in New York, or Ronald Reagan in Washington, DC, [...] none of those families own trademarks that have been licensed back to the airport.

Snopes has previously covered numerous stories about Trump's business dealings, including his Qatar golf course and his alleged ties to Saudi Arabia and Russia.