Jane MusgraveAlso commissioners approve ‘PBSO Motorman Highway’ to honor deputies who lost their lives on western section of Southern Boulevard.
Editor’s note: This story was updated Tuesday, July 8, to reflect the county commission’s action.
When West Palm Beach resident Thom Strauser learned Palm Beach County commissioners were going to vote to turn a stretch of Southern Boulevard into “President Donald J. Trump Boulevard,” he was incensed.
“Donald J. Trump is a convicted felon,” Strauser wrote commissioners. “Does Palm Beach County really want to name a portion of a highly traveled road to someone with his background?”
On Tuesday, Strauser and five other county residents pleaded with commissioners to reject the Florida Legislature’s wishes and refuse to rename the busy highway.
Despite the pleas, the commission unanimously approved the name change without discussion. But, because it hasn’t been approved by West Palm Beach or Palm Beach, only the section of Southern between Kirk Road and roughly Interstate 95 will receive the honorary designation.
Even before the meeting, Strauser recognized his odds of success were slim.
First, a commissioner who seemed sympathetic to his cause reconsidered and then even the Internet gods — Google — turned against him.
According to legislation Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed on June 13, all municipalities along the highway must sign off on the name change. Since neither West Palm Beach nor Palm Beach has voted, that means the honorary designation would stop at the West Palm Beach border instead of continuing on to State Road A1A at Mar-a-Lago as the Legislature intended.
“I feel like I’m fighting a losing battle,” Strauser said when someone online happily pointed out that the road name is official — at least on Google. The Facebook poster added hearts to highlight her excitement. “What an amazing way to honor our great President!!” another wrote.
A second name change: PBSO Motorman Highway
Even without Google jump-starting the name change, Strauser’s trepidation was understandable.
Through his aide, Commissioner Gregg Weiss initially told Strauser that he was going to try to block the name change that Commissioner Sara Baxter asked be put on the agenda.
To do so, required a two-step approach. The legislation also calls for the commission to rename a stretch of Southern from Lion Country Safari Road to Royal Palm Beach Boulevard in honor of three sheriff’s deputies who were killed along it in November when they were struck by an SUV.
Weiss said he supported honoring Cpl. Luis Paez and deputies Ralph “Butch” Waller and Ignacio “Dan” Diaz by renaming the section of road PBSO Motorman Highway.
To approve that name change while rejecting Trump Boulevard Weiss planned to simply ask the commission to allow the votes to be cast separately.
Commissioners on Tuesday did not separate the two actions and approved both in a single vote.
However, Weiss said he has since had second thoughts. He declined to elaborate.
Florida Sen. Lori Berman, D- Boynton Beach, said she can understand how both Weiss and Strauser feel.
When the recently minted Senate Democratic leader first saw the bill that changes the names of 20 roads and bridges across the state, she said she wanted to do something — file an amendment to eliminate Trump Boulevard or, at least, vote against the measure. In the end, she did neither.
“I could have filed an amendment to take it out, but it wasn’t going to pass. We’re 10 and they’re 30,” she said, referring to the number of Democrats and Republicans in the upper chamber.
So, she said, she didn’t file the amendment and ultimately joined all of her colleagues in supporting it to honor the deputies and others who were getting roads named in their honor.
“It was hard,” she said. But, she added, she has to pick her fights. “Some things I would battle on, but not this,” she said.
How about Donald J. Trump Palm Beach International Airport?
Former County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay recalled that before Trump left office in 2021 there were efforts to rename government buildings and roads in his honor.
Then-state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills, filed a 2022 bill to designate the 481-mile U.S. 27, from the Georgia state line to Miami, as President Donald J. Trump Highway. The bill went nowhere.
Christian Ziegler, shortly before he became chair of the Florida Republican Party, in late 2020 suggested renaming Palm Beach International Airport for Trump. At the time, McKinlay told WPBF that it was a “terrible idea,” particularly given Trump’s history of suing the county over airport noise.
Ziegler, who was removed from his GOP post in 2024 after a sex scandal, never pursued the airport name change.
But, Ziegler’s suggestion may not have come out of nowhere. Before leaving office Trump made it clear that seeing his name on an airport was his dream, the Daily Beast reported. He repeatedly asked aides what paperwork was involved.
Like the road name change, a decision to rename the airport would be up to the County Commission, which owns and operates PBIA, McKinley said. But, like the road name change or the Legislature’s decision to follow Trump’s directive to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, state lawmakers can throw around their weight.
Obama Highway, George Bush Boulevard
Other roads in Palm Beach County are named after former presidents.
Riviera Beach in 2015 renamed part of Old Dixie Highway after former President Barack Obama. At the time, city officials pointed out the significance of putting the name of the first Black president on a highway whose name is synonymous with the slave-holding South.
George Bush Boulevard in Delray Beach came about by a far different route. When the city sold street names to raise money for Old School Square, the Gulf Stream Republican Club in 1989 paid $25,000 to rename a short stretch of Northeast Eighth Street after the first President Bush.
But for Berman and others, it’s important that the names were attached after the presidents left office. “I think it should only happen after the person served,” Berman said.
For Strauser, the idea of Trump Boulevard, is not only a political affront, but also a waste of money.
While neither businesses nor residents will have to change their addresses because the new name would be just an honorary designation, signs will be posted.
Once the various governments sign off, the Florida Department of Transportation will design, construct and install the honorary road markers, according to the state law.
Such spending? “Completely wasteful,” Strauser said.
Note: The name changes will come up early in the meeting, which starts at 9:30 am, and can be viewed on Channel 20 here.
