President-elect Donald Trump will have an avenue named after him in Miami-Dade after the county commission approved a request by Hialeah to move forward with the recognition. Concretely, Trump's name will be added to Palm Avenue.
Democratic members of the county commission could have blocked the request as they hold seven of the officially nonpartisan 13 seats of the board. However, most declined doing so, paving the way for it to move forward. Four voted in favor of it and only Merleine Bastien, a Haitian American representing areas in northern Miami and nearby communities, voted against the measure.
BREAKING: Miami-Dade will honor President-elect Donald J. Trump by adding his name to an avenue in Hialeah, a tribute that Democratic members of the county board declined to block. https://t.co/PkkIlPAMRg
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) December 3, 2024
"I respect the fact that President Trump won the popular vote, the Electoral College and Miami-Dade County," Bastien said after casting her vote. "However, his victory does not erase the collective trauma that immigrants and citizens alike felt during this election cycle."
She specifically mentioned "falsehoods about Haitians eating cats and dogs in Ohio," a debunked claim that dominated the news cycle during the final part of the presidential campaign after the then-Republican candidate mentioned it during the debate. She also pointed out "derogatory comments about Haiti, Mexico, and some African countries in the past."
Trump won in Hialeah by 53 percentage points in the November election. The city had voted to add Trump's name to the avenue last year during the campaign, but authorities waited until after the election to formally request for county approval. Now the city can hang the street sign on county infrastructure, including traffic lights maintained by Miami-Dade authorities. Trump also won Miami-Dade, turning it red after losing it in 2016 and 2020.
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