Trump announces $22bn plan to rebuild Dulles international airport

Donald Trump announced on Wednesday a $22bn plan to rebuild Washington’s Dulles international airport on Wednesday after the US president personally weighed in on the design of the capital’s main international gateway.

“In the end, you can end up with – I think – maybe the best airport, and one of the biggest airports, anywhere in the world, and it’s going to be a great thing for Washington DC,” the president said during an announcement at the Oval Office on Wednesday.

He was flanked by Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, Scott Kirby, United Airlines CEO, and Jack Potter, president of Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), which operates the airport under a 50-year lease from Congress. Jensen Huang, the Nvidia CEO, was also off-camera in the Oval Office.

The news followed reporting from CBS News that Trump had scrutinized 3D models from contractors competing to carry out the overhaul at the White House, and offered proposed changes.

The planned overhaul of Dulles forms part of a broader pattern of Trump personally directing changes to Washington, from a proposed White House ballroom to a planned 250ft arch.

Unlike some of those projects, the president’s push to remake Dulles has drawn a more tepid response, given longstanding complaints about the airport’s distance from the city, its jet-fuel-scented concourses, and its reliance on ageing shuttle vehicles.

Trump said he wanted a parking garage large enough to hold roughly 32,000 cars, boasting: “That’ll be a world record, and very convenient.”

He said passengers would move through the site via a new spine running straight through the terminal into “massive, massive ports”, adding that the goal was for planes to load without doubling back. “It’s going to be amazing,” he said.

The scheme is also expected to include five new terminals to replace the airport’s existing four, with the underground train system expanded so passengers no longer need Dulles’s much-maligned “mobile lounges” – the slow-moving shuttles that ferry travelers across the tarmac to their gates. A new underground pedestrian tunnel and additional moving walkways are also planned.

People briefed on the proposal said the approved design leans on glass and gold, including gold-mirrored ceilings throughout the terminals.

Trump explained how he was displeased with the airport he inherited. “Right now, this is not a very good airport. We’re going to make it a great airport,” he said, later adding that the current set-up, split between trams and elevated shuttles, was “a real mess” that leaves “nobody” sure what’s going on.

He also framed the project as part of a wider ambition to reclaim American airport-building bragging rights, noting the country hasn’t opened a major airport since Denver in 1995, and arguing: “It’s time to ensure that the United States has the greatest airports anywhere in the world.”

The final design was distilled from a competitive field, according to Trump, who claimed there were “over 30 architects and 30 different designs” to choose from.

Duffy, who has publicly championed the overhaul, described the existing Dulles as “dark, it is dated, a little dank maybe”, and said the redesign would strip out the airport’s much-mocked elevated shuttles – which he compared to something “from Star Wars” – in favor of a horseshoe train line and a direct walkway running the length of the terminal.

He credited Trump personally with shaping the final concept, telling him “you actually did it”, and predicted the finished airport would be “the premier airport in our country”. Duffy also cast the project as a rare point of consensus in Washington, saying frustration with Dulles cuts across party lines: “Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, you hate the way [Dulles] operates.”

United, which handles roughly 70% of traffic at Dulles, has agreed to help finance the project, which is expected to take years and cost more than $20bn, according to the Washington Post. MWAA is expected to fund much of the work through new bond issuances, and had already approved a separate $7bn capital plan for the airport in 2025.

Complaints about Dulles sharpened last November when a mobile lounge collided with a concourse dock, injuring at least 18 people. A Trump-appointed MWAA board member later cited the crash as further reason to retire the shuttles.

Dulles handled a record 29 million passengers in 2025, up 6.4% on the previous year, and is set to open a new 14-gate concourse for United this autumn.