Oklahoma Lawmakers Rename Stretch Of Highway After Donald Trump

Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma have successfully renamed a stretch of highway after former President Donald Trump. 

Under a new bill, signed by Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma will rename a 20-mile stretch of highway, between Boise City and the border with Texas, after the forty-fifth president. The highway, part of U.S. route 287, runs north to south through the Oklahoma panhandle. 

According to The Oklahoman, lawmakers managed to rename the highway stretch after Trump with relative ease, having included the provision in an annual infrastructure naming bill. They lawmakers did, however, have to amend a bill that requires everyone except medal of honor recipients to have been dead for at least 3 years before a bridge or highway can be renamed in their honor. 

Around the country, former presidents have often served as inspiration to people looking to name infrastructure, such as buildings, parks or monuments.

Back in late April, a freshman Ohio lawmaker introduced a bill to formally rename Mosquito Lake State Park, a 7,000-acre park in Trumbull County, Ohio, to Donald J. Trump State Park. “This legislation is meant to honor the commitment and dedication that our 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, bestowed upon the great people of Trumbull County,” said state Rep. Mike Loychik in a statement, reports USA Today. 

After former President Barack Obama left office in 2017, a number of places jumped at the opportunity to have pieces of the city bear his name.  

Over in California, the West Hollywood City Council tried to get Los Angeles International Airport renamed after Obama, reported USA Today in 2019. Although the plan didn’t work, others in the city have successfully renamed streets after the forty-fourth president.

Schools in other states, such as Virginia, Texas and New Jersey, also bear the name of the forty-fourth president. (As The Daily Wire reported, some pro-immigration activists have recently been questioning whether Obama’s name should be on schools.)

Some places renamed themselves after Obama more quickly than others.

Qued Elementary Charter School, which branded itself after the forty-fourth president when President George W. Bush was serving his final week in office, according to The Los Angeles Times. One school in New York waited even less time — Ludlum Elementary School was renamed after Obama in mid-November 2008. The superintendent claimed the students came up with the idea after holding a mock presidential debate as a fifth-grade project.

“After the debate, the children said, ‘If Obama really is elected president, can we rename our school?” Joseph Laria, the Hempstead Union Free School District superintendent at the time, told CBS News back in November 2008. “It was so well done in terms of content and articulation that the school staff picked up the baton and made a presentation to the school board.”

RELATED: Illinois School Will Not Be Named After Barack And Michelle Obama Following Protests

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