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- New York City is ending its business contracts with the Trump Organization, which manages a golf course in the Bronx as well as two ice skating rinks and the carousel in Central Park.
- “The City of New York will no longer have anything to do with the Trump Organization,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
- Trump will likely challenge the decision in court, Mark Levine, a Democratic NYC council member, told Insider.
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New York City is ending its business contracts with the Trump Organization following last’s week insurrection at the US Capitol, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday.
The mayor and other political leaders have blamed President Donald Trump for inciting the deadly violence.
“Inciting an insurrection against the U.S. government clearly constitutes criminal activity,” Blasio told MSNBC. “The City of New York will no longer have anything to do with the Trump Organization,” he added.
The Trump Organization has contracts with New York City to run a city-owned golf course in the Bronx as well as two ice skating rinks and the carousel in Central Park. The Trump Organization makes around $17 million in annual revenue from these contracts, the Washington Post reported, citing Trump’s most recent financial disclosures.
Trump will likely challenge the decision in court, Mark Levine, a Democratic NYC council member, told Insider.
Levine has been pushing the city to make the decision for years, and said it had no legal reasons to delay any further. He called the four businesses run by the Trump Organization a "stain on the city," and noted that the Trump branding was detracting people from visiting the attractions.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Congress met last Wednesday to certify the result of the US presidential election. Fueled by months of conspiracy theories and baseless allegations of election fraud pushed by President Donald Trump and his backers, rioters stormed the Capitol. Five people died in violence connected to the siege.
Mayor de Blasio said Tuesday the city's team was assessing options in dealing with the contracts. "We are looking at that very, very carefully and very quickly," de Blasio had told a press conference Tuesday.
"The president incited a rebellion against the US government - clearly an unconstitutional act, and people died," he said. "That's unforgivable."
—Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) January 12, 2021
Legal experts told the New York Times the city may struggle to end the contracts because of clauses in the agreements determining when they can be cancelled. The city may instead choose to left the contracts expire, the experts said; the agreements for the three Central Park attractions end in April of this year, while the one for the golf course ends in April 2032.
This isn't the first time the city has looked to cut ties with Trump. In 2015, Blasio tried to end the contracts after Trump called Mexican people "rapists" who bring drugs and crime, but his attempts were unsuccessful.
And branding with Trump's name was removed from the two skating rinks in 2019, the New York Times reported.