City’s Trump furor
Kill the NY deals he has, say pols
City Council Speaker Melissa MarkViverito denounced Donald Trump at a rally outside City Hall Wednesday and then suggested the city look to break its contracts with the GOP presidential frontrunner because of his “racist” views.
“That’s a conversation to be had,” the speaker told reporters after she and others spent an hour attacking Trump.
“It’s about what do we uphold as a city. What are our values as a city? That’s something that is very real. We have values. We uphold that. And this individual doesn’t believe in that, then why should he profit, right?”
During the rally, she described Trump as a “disgusting, racist demagogue who has no business running for president.”
Trump has four concessions with the city — the two ice rinks and the carousel in Central Park and the golf course at Ferry Point in The Bronx.
The president of a leading business group warned that the city was headed down a dangerous path if it tries to break Trump’s contracts based on his comments.
“It’s always a mistake to mix business and politics in terms of public procurement. Government doesn’t have that discretion,” said Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City.
“I don’t think it’s legal or appropriate to mess with someone’s contract on the basis of their political or personal point of view.”
Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, said MarkViverito risks violating the US Constitution.
“Unless there’s something in the contract that addresses extraneous speech, you can’t do anything about it. That would be highly unusual to have in a city contract,” he said.
Through a spokeswoman, Mayor de Blasio reiterated his previous position that there’s nothing he can do to upend current contracts, but in the future “would not go out of his way to do any business with Mr. Trump.”
Councilman Mark Levine (DManhattan), who’s launched a “Dump Trump” campaign, said the city should find a way to end its relationship with the developer and disclosed that he’s looking into legislation to do just that.
“We haven’t given up the fight on this,” Levine said. “We’re going to look for any angle to undo these contracts.”
The rally attracted a crowd of about 250, including 17 council members, who rebuked Trump for suggesting Muslims be temporarily barred from entering the US.
“This man will not become president of the United States,” said Councilman Daneek Miller (DQueens), the only Muslim in the body. “His ignorance is only surpassed by those who will follow him.”
It didn’t take long for Trump to fire back.
“Perhaps [Mark Viverito] should focus on taking care of the filthy conditions of New York City, the everexpanding homeless population and lowering taxes, along with Mayor de Blasio, widely considered the worst mayor in the United States,” he said.
At least two Trump supporters showed up uninvited and one began chanting “Long live Donald Trump! I Love Donald Trump!” as MarkViverito was speaking.
“He’s a peaceful man. I love Muslims too,” added the woman, who identified herself as Rose Rosenberg of Brooklyn.
Donald Trump talks in broad strokes and with two fists to voice what many Americans think. “Shut up!” is no answer, even when he’s wrong — yet that’s the response the political establishment keeps trying.
The latest furor is over his “admit no Muslims” idea in the wake of the San Bernardino attack, a line he walked back slightly by saying US citizens could still come back home.
Perhaps the silliest take was City Council Speaker Melissa MarkViverito’s charge that Trump is unAmerican — this, from a lady who until recently was publicly declining to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
All the upset is particularly ironic in a week when, at President Obama’s request, Congress is moving to toughen rules for visas for visitors from . . . several Muslim nations.
(And, yes, Obama asked for the change in the same Sunday speech where he warned the nation against Islamophobia. Go figure.)
We agree: Trump’s broadbrush Muslim ban is at odds with the spirit of the First Amendment’s religiousliberty principles (even though constitutional rights don’t apply to immigration policy).
That said, as Bob McManus noted in Wednesday’s Post, The Donald’s idea carries political punch because it falls in a vacuum created by the president’s refusal to talk about Islamist terrorism.
More important, MarkViverito’s “answer” to Trump flies in the face of the letter of the First Amendment — the free speech part.
At her small antiTrump rally Wednesday, the speaker pushed for the city to cancel four contracts with the developer because of his “racist” comments. Even her “MaxiMe,” Mayor de Blasio, knows that would be illegal. But MarkViverito calls the idea “a conversation to be had.”
Makes you wonder if Trump is secretly paying her to make him look good.