New York City is terminating its contracts with President Trump’s company to run a carousel, two ice rinks and a golf course in city parks, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said Wednesday — calling it a response to Trump’s encouragement of a mob that ransacked the U.S. Capitol.
That decision — which will cut off the Trump Organization from businesses that bring in $17 million per year in revenue — makes New York the latest business partner to cut ties with Trump’s company.
In a statement, Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, said the company would fight the move.
“The City of New York has no legal right to end our contracts and if they elect to proceed, they will owe The Trump Organization over $30 million dollars,” she said. “This is nothing more than political discrimination, an attempt to infringe on the First Amendment and we plan to fight vigorously.”
Trump still owns his company, and his actions as president led him to be cut off by even longtime partners.
Since Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol, the company has lost two of its banks, its e-commerce vendor and two of its real estate brokers. The company also lost its chance to host the prestigious PGA Championship golf tournament in 2022 and its hopes of hosting another major golf tournament in Scotland.
That wide rejection comes at an awful time for Trump’s company, which was already struggling — with its hotels emptied by the pandemic and more than $400 million in unpaid loans looming.
Now, experts say, Trump’s company will face that future without many of its key allies, and without some of its steady sources of income.
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that New York City was considering this step, looking for legal means to cut off the contracts.
Now, city officials said they had found those means, though they gave little details.
They said that Trump’s contracts to run a carousel and two ice rinks in Central Park could be terminated in 25 and 30 days, respectively. The contract to run the Ferry Point golf course, in the Bronx, won’t be terminated for “a number of months,” the city said.
The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning. It has not responded to questions from The Post at any time this week.
On Tuesday, the Associated Press said it had spoken to Eric Trump, who is the company’s de facto leader while his father is in office. The news service said Eric Trump had expressed no concerns about the company’s financial future. He blamed the decisions by the Trump Organization’s business partners on liberal “cancel culture.”
“If you disagree with them, if they don’t like you, they try and cancel you,” Eric Trump said, according to the AP. Then, when an AP reporter asked Eric Trump if his father had incited the crowd that attacked the Capitol, there was silence and the line went dead.