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AMERICANALMANAC (Sadie Smith) - Trump unveils $22.5 billion plan to rebuild Dulles Airport, scrap its notorious mobile lounges Wed Jul 29 19:18:14 2026

President Trump is preparing to announce a sweeping $22.5 billion renovation of Washington Dulles International Airport that would eliminate the facility's widely loathed "people mover" mobile lounges, a system passengers have endured since 1962. Trump reviewed three-dimensional models from competing design and engineering firms earlier this year and personally edited proposals during charrettes hosted inside […] The post Trump unveils $22.5 billion plan to rebuild Dulles Airport, scrap its notorious mobile lounges appeared first on American Almanac .

President Trump is preparing to announce a sweeping $22.5 billion renovation of Washington Dulles International Airport that would eliminate the facility's widely loathed "people mover" mobile lounges, a system passengers have endured since 1962. Trump reviewed three-dimensional models from competing design and engineering firms earlier this year and personally edited proposals during charrettes hosted inside the Oval Office, CBS News reported . He called advisers by phone with suggestions, rejected designs he found impractical, and settled on a concept that builds on the airport's existing infrastructure rather than starting from scratch. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is expected to join Trump for a formal announcement from the Oval Office this week, though the timing could shift. The plan would replace Dulles's aging mobile lounges, which one frequent flyer described as a "mobile torture chamber", with a new underground aerotrain, four new linear concourses to replace the current A, B, C, and D gates, and a parking structure relocated closer to the iconic main terminal designed by architect Eero Saarinen. The existing runways would remain unchanged. Trump personally rejected three rival designs before settling on a build-on-what-exists approach Roughly 30 firms submitted proposals for the overhaul. Trump narrowed the field himself, reviewing competing visions from HNTB, Ferrovial, Jacobs, AECOM, STV Group, and others. Sources familiar with the process told CBS News that Trump found fault with several of the most ambitious entries. HNTB's proposal was the most dramatic, essentially an entirely new airport built from scratch, with an additional main terminal at the far end of the property. Trump thought it would be cumbersome to rebuild while keeping plane traffic moving. Ferrovial, the firm behind the new Terminal 1 at JFK Airport in New York, submitted a design featuring a wavy roof for a new main terminal. Trump rejected the roof. Jacobs proposed a bridge between terminals built high enough for aircraft to pass underneath. Trump disliked that, too. What he chose instead was a concept that preserves the Saarinen terminal and extends the existing aerotrain underground to serve all concourses, including the D concourse, home to United Airlines gates, which the current train does not reach. The New York Post reported that the administration's broader FAA modernization effort is already one-third of the way through a transition from copper to fiber infrastructure, with new American-manufactured radios and radars on order. At a December Cabinet meeting, Trump told officials he intended to turn Dulles "into something really spectacular." No federal taxpayer dollars, bonds and airline revenue would fund the project Under the financing structure Trump backed, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority would issue tax-free bonds to cover the cost. United Airlines, which carries roughly two-thirds of Dulles's daily passengers, would contract for the new build and repay the bond financing through airport operations. The Associated Press reported that the project would be financed by MWAA and the airlines serving Dulles, not federal taxpayer funds. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby met with Trump about the project, sources said. The airline opposed a separate, all-encompassing proposal from BlackRock that would have given the investment giant operational control of the airport and its revenues. That proposal was found to have multiple complications beyond United's objections. Separate requests for proposals will be issued for public-private partnerships to develop the land side of the renovation, including a proposed convention center and new parking lots. The president's push to deliver tangible results for taxpayers extends well beyond aviation, but the Dulles project stands out for its scale and its financing model, which keeps the bill off the federal ledger entirely. Dulles's "temporary" gates have lasted more than 40 years The airport's infrastructure problems are not new. The C and D gates were built in 1985 as temporary terminals for United Airlines. They are still standing more than four decades later. The mobile lounges, large, slow vehicles that shuttle passengers between the main terminal and the gates, have been in service since Dulles opened in 1962. Trump privately vented about the experience of flying into Dulles, telling advisers the airport "was incorrectly designed" and complaining about "parking that's two miles away." He called the mobile lounge system "crazy." MWAA board member Trent Morse offered a blunter assessment, telling Newsmax the mobile lounges were "slow, outdated, and dangerous" and should be replaced, a statement that followed a crash involving one of the vehicles in November. The proposed design features large glass windows and gold accents, including gold-mirrored ceilings, according to Newsmax. Dulles handled a record 9.3 million international passengers in 2023, exceeding 2022 figures by 26.9 percent, volume that makes the case for modernization hard to argue against. Trump's hands-on involvement in the Dulles project mirrors his approach to other Washington-area renovations during his second term, including work on the White House East Wing and the Kennedy Center. His willingness to personally direct major initiatives from the Oval Office, whether military strategy or airport design, has become a defining feature of his second administration. Naming rights became a separate flashpoint with Democrats The Dulles renovation is not the only airport-related clash between the White House and congressional Democrats. The Trump administration offered to release $16 billion in blocked Gateway infrastructure funding to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in exchange for naming Dulles International Airport and Penn Station after the president, Breitbart reported . Schumer rejected the offer. New York and New Jersey subsequently filed lawsuits against the administration, alleging political retribution and violations of the Administrative Procedure Act. Sen. Bernie Sanders called the naming demand "arrogant" and "illegal." The attorneys general of New York and New Jersey argued that suspending funding for the Gateway project "based on the president's desire to punish political rivals violates the Administrative Procedure Act many times over." The administration has not backed down. The naming dispute is separate from the renovation itself, but it illustrates how Washington's infrastructure fights have become inseparable from its political ones. Democrats who object to putting Trump's name on a building have offered no competing plan to fix the airport travelers actually use. Meanwhile, the president's willingness to engage directly with issues the political class prefers to ignore , from crumbling airports to foreign influence, continues to separate his governing style from the permanent bureaucracy's preference for studying problems indefinitely. Open questions remain on timeline and final design details Several details remain unresolved. No projected construction timeline or completion date has been disclosed. Whether MWAA has formally agreed to issue the tax-free bonds is unclear. The identity of the firm whose design Trump ultimately selected, or whether the final plan is a composite of multiple proposals, has not been confirmed publicly. And the fate of the existing mobile lounges after they are retired is unknown. What is clear is the scope. A $22.5 billion project financed without federal tax dollars, driven by a president who personally reviewed 3D models and rejected designs he found impractical, aimed at an airport whose "temporary" gates have outlasted most congressional careers. The contrast between Washington's usual pace of action and the speed of this initiative is hard to miss. Dulles has been a punchline for decades. If this plan moves at the pace Trump is setting, the joke may finally be over, and travelers, not consultants, will be the ones who benefit. The post Trump unveils $22.5 billion plan to rebuild Dulles Airport, scrap its notorious mobile lounges appeared first on American Almanac .