New York City is terminating its contracts with the Trump Organization because of the mob riot at the U.S. Capitol, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday.
The contracts are for two ice-skating rinks at Central Park, the Central Park Carousel and the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, a city-owned golf course in the Bronx.
Mr. de Blasio said he was ending the relationship because President Trump had incited violence.
“Inciting an insurrection against the U.S. government clearly constitutes criminal activity,” Mr. de Blasio said in an interview on MSNBC on Wednesday. “The City of New York will no longer have anything to do with the Trump Organization.”
While the city has considered canceling the Trump Organization’s contracts before, Mr. de Blasio said the violence in Washington qualified as criminal activity under which New York City had the right to sever ties with a company.
The city’s decision is a strong rebuke from Mr. Trump’s hometown, which he repeatedly attacked on the campaign trail as he ran unsuccessfully for a second term.
Mr. Trump’s name had already been stripped from private properties, including the Trump SoHo hotel, now the Dominick, and some former Trump Place condominiums in Manhattan.
The Trump Organization operates Wollman Rink, near Central Park’s southern edge, and Lasker Rink, in the northern end of the park. Both contracts were set to expire in April.
Mr. de Blasio’s office said it was notifying the Trump Organization that the city was starting the process of canceling the agreements. The cancellation for the carousel, which is currently closed, would take effect in 25 days; the skating rinks would take effect in 30 days, city officials said. The golf course contract is more complex and could take several months to void.
Mr. de Blasio said on Wednesday that city’s deal for the golf course with the Trump Organization “never should have been made in the first place.”
Mr. de Blasio first proposed severing the city’s ties with the company in 2015, when Mr. Trump made comments disparaging Latinos. But some legal experts argued then that voiding the contracts would not hold up in court.
The agreements contain language that forbids “arbitrary” or “capricious” reasons for cancellation if the decision appeared to be motivated simply by personal animus toward the president.
Mark Levine, a Democratic city councilman from Manhattan who has long supported cutting ties with the Trump Organization, celebrated the news.
“This is a welcome and long (years!) overdue step,” he wrote on Twitter.
Read More News: New York City Will End Contracts With Trump Over Capitol Riot
