NYC to Cancel Contracts with Trump Organization, Citing Capitol Insurrection

The city will start the process of terminating the company’s contracts to operate the Central Park Carousel, Wollman and Lasker ice skating rinks and the Ferry Point Golf Course in the Bronx.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that the city is cancelling its contracts with the Trump Organization—which operates two ice skating rinks, a golf course and the Central Park Carousel—citing the president’s role in last week’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The mayor says the city “is taking steps” to terminate its three contracts with the company, which will each end at varying dates, depending on the agreements each location has with the city.

The Carousel in Central Park, which is currently closed, will see its contract end 25 days after the city’s termination notice is delivered, while the agreement for the park’s Wollman and Lasker ice skating rinks will end 30 days after such notice, the city said Wednesday. Trump took over operations at the Wollman rink in 1986, repairing and reopening the site—a move he’s touted over the years as evidence of his managerial expertise.

The Ferry Point Golf Course in the Bronx, which the Trump Organization opened in 2015 on the site of a former garbage dump, has a more “detailed” contract which will take “a number of months” to terminate, the city said.

“The President incited a rebellion against the United States government that killed five people and threatened to derail the constitutional transfer of power,” de Blasio said in a statement Wednesday. “The City of New York will not be associated with those unforgivable acts in any shape, way or form.”

The mayor said the city’s Law Department has reviewed the contracts and determined it has the legal ability to cut ties with the group.

“It is in the best interests of the city to terminate these contracts, and the provisions of the contracts give us strong grounds to do that,” James Johnson, the city’s top lawyer, said during a later press briefing Wednesday.

De Blasio said the city is “working immediately” to find new vendors to take over operations of the four facilities.

Some local lawmakers have been calling for the city to cut ties with the Trump Organization for years, and welcomed the mayor’s announcement.

“I’ve been fighting to cancel these contracts since Trump came down the escalator in 2015 to launch his campaign of hate,” City Councilman Mark Levine tweeted Wednesday morning. “The Trump name will never sully our precious green space again.”

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote Wednesday morning to impeach the president for a second time.