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The Trump Organization is suing New York City over its decision earlier this year to cancel the company’s contract to operate an 18-hole golf course in the Bronx with views of the Manhattan skyline.
The lawsuit filed Monday in the New York State Supreme Court accuses the city, specifically Mayor Bill de Blasio, of terminating the Trump Golf Links contract at Fairy Point due to political motives and “hostility against President Trump.” The lawsuit said the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was the catalyst for the city’s decision.
Patrons play links as a giant brand name with slab stones is displayed at Trump Golf Links at Fairy Point in the Bronx, New York, Tuesday, May 4, 2021.
“Mayor de Blasio had a pre-existing political tendency to terminate Trump-related contracts, and the city used the events of January 6, 2021 as an excuse to do so,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit said that after the riots, de Blasio “denounced President Trump in the most disturbing terms” and “characterized the Trump Organization as a “criminal-led organization.” It alleges that the mayor “also incited others to end business with Trump-related entities.”
A few days after Trump supporters breached the Capitol to stop electoral vote counting boosting President Joe Biden’s election, de Blasio said the city would sever all contracts with the Trump Organization. The Democratic mayor said the city has the right to break a contract with any company that engages in criminal activity.
“Inciting rebellion against the United States government clearly constitutes criminal activity,” he said at the time on MSNBC.
According to the Trump Organization, Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver said the former president’s company had “tarnished the Trump brand” and “is now unable to deliver on its promises – express and implied – to operate a golf course capable of attracting professional, tournament-quality events.”
But the license to operate the golf course, which first opened in 2015, has never required the Trump Organization to hold tournaments, saying only that the city expects the company to make the courses “a first-class golf course with daily championship quality.” The lawsuit said.
The submission defended the company’s right to continue operating the golf course by listing “awards and top ratings from major publications,” including statements from several professional golfers, such as Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson.
The lawsuit said Johnson played at Fairy Point and quoted him as saying that it “competes tournaments that host the most prestigious professional tour events anywhere in the world and is fully capable of hosting a tournament in the future”.
The lawsuit noted that the termination of the license would become effective on November 14, “12 days after the next election day, when New Yorkers elect a person to replace Mayor de Blasio.”
The city holds its mayoral primaries Tuesday.
The lawsuit says that the licensing agreement stipulated that if New York City terminated the contract, the Department of Parks and Recreation would have to pay the Trump Organization “a termination payment equal to the sum of, among other things, the costs of capital improvements and growth costs, which the company has estimated at approximately $30 million.”
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