Less than a week after proposing to name a scenic highway in Utah after Donald Trump, Utah Representative Mike Noel has pulled his bill from consideration.The Salt Lake Tribune reportsthat while Noel says he had enough votes to pass the bill, he dropped it on Wednesday after receiving violent backlash from the public. Reactions reportedly included hundreds of personal attacks and some death threats.
Navajo President Russell Begaye also said naming the bill after the President was “like rubbing salt into an open wound.” The Utah Governor called the legislation “premature,” and a Democratic congressman mocked the bill by proposing to name a frontage road after adult film star Stormy Daniels. She allegedly had an affair with the president.
Noel said he had not intended the bill to condone the things the president had done wrong. Instead, he said he hoped it would honor Trump’s support of public lands, and that the president has “done really wonderful things for Utah.”