In Reply to: Yet another grift by Trunp airport namig posted by russsmith on February 17, 2026 at 09:05:55
Washington Dulles International is a hellhole that makes Americans despair and strikes terror into foreigners—just like Donald Trump.
...I think it’s a spectacular idea. I can think of no better way of honoring the forty-fifth president of the United States than affixing his name to the most embarrassing, miserable airport in the country.
....
But what really makes Dulles a miserable hellhole—the eighth-worst airport in the entire world, according to a 2015 survey—is the so-called people movers. Imagine you have landed at the airport after a nonstop flight from Panama City (five hours), London (eight hours), or even Tokyo (13 hours) or Delhi (15 hours). You’re tired, hungry, irritable. The plane taxis to the gate, and you patiently wait your turn to disembark. You walk up the jet bridge, then down one hallway, then another, and as you anticipate “Customs and Immigration” finally coming into view, you’re herded into what can only generously be called a vehicle: a cramped metal box on oversize wheels.
Conceived in the late 1950s as futuristic, glamorous “mobile lounges,” these anachronistic minibuses look like they’ve been repurposed from an old Star Wars production: crude rovers built to withstand the harsh climate of some distant, dusty planet. And sure enough, after as many as 100 weary people are packed into them, they turn into the bar scene from A New Hope. People are instructed to move to the rear, but are hesitant to do so because that will put them further back in line when it comes time to disembark (again) and navigate another maze of hallways to reach the Customs screening. And yet, the passengers keep pushing their way in, because no one wants to wait for the next Hell on Wheels to shuttle them across the tarmac to a building that they feel, rightly, they should have been able to walk to from the plane.
In these moments, after arriving from a trip abroad, I study my fellow passengers’ faces. Those who have sunk into despair are locals; they’ve been dreading this moment for hours already. Those who are stricken with horror are foreign tourists who cannot believe that the major international airport of the capital of the United States treats its guests like feral hogs. It is a truly ugly welcome to the country, one that always makes me ashamed to be an American.
So why not rename Dulles after the man who makes us feel this way every single day?