Oklahoma lawmakers name embarrassingly small stretch of highway after Donald Trump -- even though he's not dead
Oklahoma lawmakers are as obsessed with former President Donald Trump as most in the Republican Party. Their recent decision to name a stretch of highway after the former president ended up as an embarrassment.
According to the right-leaning Daily Oklahoman newspaper, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) signed legislation to name a 20-mile stretch of U.S. Route 287 the "President Donald J. Trump Highway." U.S. Route 287 is a massive stretch of road that goes from the Gulf of Mexico to nearly the Canadian border. In Oklahoma, however, the highway barely touches the state, running through the most narrow part of what is known as the "panhandle."
The road does run through Boise City, Oklahoma, the most populous city in Cimarron County, where the highway drives through. The population of Boise City was 1,266 at the 2010 census. The total population for Cimarron County was 2,475 in the 2010 census.
Senate Minority Leader Kay Floyd, a Democrat, explained during the vote that the state law requires a person to be dead before naming a highway or bridge in their honor.
Some legislators wanted to name a highway after former president Trump. But statute dictated that a person must’ve… https://t.co/2E98GAlhwX
— Forrest Bennett (@ForrestBennett) 1621954246.0
"In 2019, Sens. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, and Marty Quinn, R-Claremore, tried to name a portion of Route 66 after Trump," The Oklahoman reported. "The proposal faced nearly immediate pushback from both sides of the aisle as Oklahomans condemned the politicization of the Mother Road."