New York City is severing its multimillion-dollar deals with the Trump organization after President Donald Trump was involved in the riot on Capitol Hill last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on MSNBC on Wednesday.
“The contracts make it very clear that we have the right to terminate the contract if the company and the leadership of that company engage in illegal activities,” de Blasio told MSNBC. “Inciting an insurrection against the United States government is clearly a criminal activity.”
In a follow-up statement, the mayor’s office wrote: “The city of New York is in no way associated with such unforgivable acts, and we are taking immediate steps to terminate all Trump Organization contracts.”
The contracts cover the Wollman and Lasker ice rinks in Central Park and the famous carousel, all of which have been operated by the Trump Organization since the 1980s, and the Trump Golf Links course at Ferry Point in the Bronx, which it has operated since 2015.
“Another example of Mayor de Blasio’s blatant disregard for the facts,” Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, wrote in a statement to NBC News. “The City of New York has no legal right to terminate our contracts, and if so.” If they choose to proceed, they owe The Trump Organization over $ 30 million. This is nothing more than political discrimination, an attempt to break the first amendment, and we plan to fight vigorously. “
The mayor’s office said the contracts will be terminated according to their termination clauses. Central Park concessions will expire within a month of notification being delivered while the golf course will take “a few months” to relax, the mayor’s office said.
On Sunday, the Professional Golfers’ Association of America pulled the 2022 PGA Championship, one of the premier professional golf tournaments, from President Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, days after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
“This is a violation of a binding contract and you have no right to terminate the agreement,” the Trump organization said in a statement released on Sunday. “We had a wonderful partnership with the PGA of America and we are incredibly disappointed with their decision.”
The Ferry Point contract included a stipulation that the course would attract championship events, but the PGA’s cancellation likely casts doubt on whether it could meet the obligation on the Bronx course.
The president gained loyalty from corporate executives willing to look the other way as he ushered in the largest tax break hiatus in history, business allies close to Trump told NBC News. Wall Street rewarded that loyalty with a euphoric roller coaster ride up the top while Main Street stumbled.
But the inescapable images and arrests of Capitol breakers and die-hard anti-Semitic and white nationalist supporters have even made Trump’s die-hard boosters disconnect.
Two weeks ago, Trump was seen as the “kingmaker” of the Republican Party, whose influence would be seen for the foreseeable future. But everything changed last Wednesday.
Some of Trump’s prominent supporters have begun to forcibly withdraw from the president.
“I feel betrayed. Okay?” Billionaire Ken Langone, co-founder of Home Depot and key GOP donor, told CNBC on Wednesday morning. “Something’s wrong last Wednesday if it doesn’t break every American’s heart. I have not signed up for it. “
“I will do everything I can from day one to make sure I do my part in making Joe Biden the most successful president in this country’s history,” said Langone.
Stephen Schwarzman, billionaire CEO of Blackstone and one of Trump’s largest donors in the financial sector, has also thrown his support behind Biden. Following Wednesday’s events, Schwarzman said he was “shocked and appalled by this mob’s attempt to undermine our constitution. As I said in November, the outcome of the elections is very clear and there must be a peaceful change of power.”
Close Trump’s allies told NBC News that the move away from the president was real and unlike anything seen in its history.
Now they are concerned about what the increasingly cornered and desperate Trump might do next in his remaining days.
The implosion of support represents the Trump brand’s self-inflicted degradation from an imprimatur of glitz, luxury and excess to a piece of tough political extremism and will seriously undermine his ability to use his name in the traditional business sense after he leaves office.
Leisure and hospitality, already ravaged by the pandemic, are unlikely to be very profitable avenues for the president, except for a niche audience.
Mainstream stores are unlikely to see his daughter Ivanka’s clad clothing line back on their shelves after hailing rioters as “patriots”.
Some members of Trump’s golf clubs have reportedly even started reconsidering membership for fear of “possible protests and vandalism,” the New York Times reported Tuesday.
Trump’s ability to raise money could now be reduced to using his claims of election fraud – but even here, some donors are suing to get their money back, and payment processors are severing ties. Potential overseas supporters for Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and the extended family may be concerned about tainted bonds and restricted access.
Meanwhile, business backlash against the president for his role in the deadly attacks on the Capitol continues to grow.
After Deutsche Bank and Signature Bank, two of Trump’s preferred lenders, announced they would no longer do business with President Professional Bank, a Florida-based financial institution that has loaned Trump’s company millions of dollars, they said Tuesday that this is also the case. cut ties.
“Professional Bank has made a decision to stop doing business with the Trump Organization and its affiliates and will end the relationship,” Todd Templin, a public relations representative for the company, told NBC News in a statement emailed .
Cushman & Wakefield, one of the largest real estate services companies in the country, said it will no longer do business with the Trump Organization, a company spokesperson told NBC News in an email. The company has previously signed leases for some of Trump’s leading properties, including Trump Tower.
Trump also signed a 60-year lease with the Government Services Administration to operate the old Washington, DC Post Office as the Trump International Hotel, where it has become a focal point for international players and those who are popular with the government want to do administration, booking expensive rooms for longer stays and holding events.
Despite a clause stating that the lease might not benefit an elected official, the GSA, which oversees Trump, has stated that their boss is complying with the rules because he was a civilian when the contract was signed. The GSA has blocked attempts by the Democrats to investigate the conditions.
“The government could suspend the Trump organization and propose it for derecognition. At that point, it could not continue its business relations with the Trump organization,” Steven Schooner, professor of contract law at George Washington University, told NBC News in an E. -Mail.
“The US government never needs to do business with companies that lack business ethics and integrity or that have been charged,” he said.
The GSA did not immediately respond to a request from NBC News for comment.
Where else could relationships and buildings fall?
Donald J. Trump State Park, a few miles north of New York City, consists of 436 acre state park that Trump donated to the state after failing to get development permission to turn it into a golf course. It contains the crumbling blocks of a former mansion of the late William D. Baldwin, an elevator magnate from the Gilded Age.
The office of Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, did not respond to a request from NBC News regarding the park’s future.