N.Y. will terminate Trump contracts, mayor announces

NEW YORK» The city will terminate business contracts with President Donald Trump after last week’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday.

“I’m here to announce that the city of New York is severing all contracts with the Trump Organization,” de Blasio said in an interview on MSNBC.

De Blasio said the Trump Organization earns about $17 million a year in profits from its contracts to run two ice skating rinks and a carousel in Central Park as well as a golf course in the Bronx.

The city can terminate a contract if the leadership of a company is engaged in criminal activity, the Democratic mayor said.

“Inciting an insurrection — let’s be very clear, let’s say the words again — inciting an insurrection against the United States government clearly constitutes criminal activity,” he said.

A Trump Organization spokesperson said the city can’t cancel the contracts.

“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,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “This is nothing more than political discrimination, an attempt to infringe on the First Amendment, and we plan to fight vigorously.”

The move to end Trump’s business contracts in the city he formerly called home is the latest example of how the Jan. 6 breach by violent Trump supporters is affecting the Republican president’s business interests.

The PGA of America voted Sunday to take the PGA Championship away from his New Jersey golf course next year.

De Blasio had said the city was examining its legal options to end the Trump contracts. He said Wednesday that city lawyers determined that if Trump sues over the move, the city would win. Trump “incited a mob to attack the Capitol,” de Blasio said, adding, “the lawyers looked at it, and it was just as clear as a bell that’s grounds for severing these contracts. And we’re moving to do that right away.”

Jim Johnson, leader of the city law department, said the PGA’s move to cut ties with Trump gives the city additional grounds to terminate the golf course contract.

“One of the reasons that he was given that contract was his ability to attract major golf tournaments,” Johnson said at a briefing with the mayor.