NEW YORK (AP) – New York City will terminate trade contracts with President Donald Trump following last week’s uprising at the U.S. Capitol, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday.
“I’m here to announce that New York City is terminating all contracts with the Trump Organization,” de Blasio said in an interview with MSNBC.
De Blasio said the Trump Organization earns about $ 17 million a year in profits from its contracts to run two ice rinks and a carousel in Central Park, as well as a golf course in the Bronx.
The city can legally terminate a contract if the management of a company is engaged in criminal activities, the Democratic mayor said. “Inciting an insurrection – let’s be very clear, we say the words again – inciting an insurrection against the U.S. government is clearly a criminal activity,” he said.
An email was sent to the Trump organization on Wednesday.
The move to end Trump’s trade deals in the city he previously called home is the latest example of how January 6’s failure by violent Trump supporters affects the Republican president’s business interests.
The PGA of America voted Sunday to withdraw the PGA Championship from its New Jersey golf course next year, an action that came after social media platforms disabled Trump’s accounts and Shopify withdrew stores in line affiliated with him.
De Blasio had previously said the city was examining its legal options to end Trump’s contracts. He said Wednesday that city attorneys determined that if Trump sues for the move, the city will win. Trump “incited a crowd to attack the Capitol,” Blasio said, adding, “Lawyers looked at it and it was as clear as a bell motivating the rupture of those contracts and we will do so immediately.”
But the split with Trump’s eponymous company will not occur immediately. De Blasio said in a press release that terminating the contract to run the Ferry Point golf course in the Bronx is complex “and is expected to take several months.”
The termination of the contract to run Wollman Rink and Lasker Rink in Central Park will take effect 30 days after written notice, Blasio said. The termination of the contract to run the carousel, which is now closed, will take effect 25 days after written notification.
The city will look for new vendors from all the attractions, the mayor said.
Removing Trump’s name from the courts, carousel, and golf course won’t erase him from New York City. It will still operate the Trump Tower on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue and the Trump International Hotel in Central Park West. Trump moved his official Trump Tower residence to Florida in 2019.