New York City will end business contracts with the Trump Organization after Capitol siege, Mayor de Blasio said

<p><img src="https://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5fe323ddedf89200180936f5-1714/Trump%20wildcard.jpg" border="0" alt="Donald Trump wildcard" data-mce-source="Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images" data-mce-caption="US President Donald Trump looks on during a ceremony presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to wrestler Dan Gable in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on December 7, 2020."></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>New York City is ending its business contracts with the Trump Organization following last's week insurrection at the US Capitol, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday.</p><p>The mayor and other political leaders have blamed President Donald Trump for inciting the deadly violence.</p><p>"Inciting an insurrection against the US government clearly constitutes criminal activity," Blasio told MSNBC.</p><p>"The City of New York will no longer have anything to do with the Trump Organization," he added.</p><p>The Trump Organization has contracts with New York City to run a city-owned golf course in the Bronx as well as two ice skating rinks and the carousel in Central Park. The Trump Organization makes around $17 million in annual revenue from these contracts, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-york-trump-cancel/2021/01/11/3527257e-545a-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html'campaign_id=4&amp;emc=edit_dk_20210113&amp;instance_id=25952&amp;nl=dealbook&amp;regi_id=146666288&amp;segment_id=49166&amp;te=1&amp;user_id=3a2e2327fa43b8ed339e87400d4d613c">the Washington Post</a> reported, citing Trump's most recent financial disclosures.</p><p>Trump will likely challenge the decision in court, Mark Levine, a Democratic NYC council member, told Insider, but said this would be unsuccessful.</p><p>Levine has been pushing the city to make the decision for years, saying the city had no legal reasons to delay cutting ties with Trump's businesses. Wednesday's announcement as a "long time coming," he told Insider, listing both moral and business motivations for the decision.</p><p>Levine called the Trump Organization's connections with the four businesses a "stain on the city," and noted that the Trump branding was likely detracting people from visiting the attractions.</p><p>"I can't tell you how many people have told me that they just can't bear to go to Wollman Ice Rink or the Central Park Carousel because of [Trump's] association with it," he explained.</p><p>The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-el="text">Congress met last Wednesday to certify the result of the US presidential election. Fueled by months of conspiracy theories and baseless allegations of election fraud pushed by President Donald Trump and his backers, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-trump-protest-riot-us-capitol-washington-2021-1" data-analytics-module="body_link" data-analytics-post-depth="40" data-uri="2fb68579d11d24a20123e9f5b69faba1">rioters stormed the Capitol</a>. Five people died in violence connected to the siege.</p><p data-el="text">Mayor de Blasio said Tuesday the city's team was assessing options in dealing with the contracts. "We are looking at that very, very carefully and very quickly," de Blasio had told a press conference Tuesday.</p><p data-el="text">"The president incited a rebellion against the US governmentclearly an unconstitutional act, and people died," he said.</p><p data-el="text">"That's unforgivable."</p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation=""><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Banks, e-commerce, professional sports associations...all have severed business ties w/ Trump.<br><br>One entity that still hasn't' <br><br>The City of New York, which continues to give his company the privilege of running four marquis businesses in NYC Parks.<br><br>CANCEL THESE CONTRACTS NOW.</p> Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1348985484266119169'ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><p></p><p data-el="text">This isn't the first time the city has looked to cut ties with Trump. In 2015, Blasio tried to end the contracts after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-presidential-campaign-iowa-caucus-polls-2016-1">Trump called Mexican people "rapists"</a> who bring drugs and crime, but his attempts were unsuccessful.</p><p data-el="text">And branding with Trump's name was removed from the two skating rinks in 2019, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/nyregion/trump-skating-rinks.html">New York Times</a> reported.</p><p data-el="text">"Almost as soon as Trump launched his campaign in 2015, and it was clear he was going to be a major force for bigotry, we started to organize to get these contracts cancelled," Levin, who previously chaired the city's committee on parks and recreation, told Insider. "I'm just incredibly relieved it's finally happening."</p><p data-el="text">Legal experts told the<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/nyregion/trump-golf-course-carousel-ice-rinks.html'action=click&amp;campaign_id=4&amp;emc=edit_dk_20210113&amp;instance_id=25952&amp;module=Spotlight&amp;nl=dealbook&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;regi_id=146666288&amp;segment_id=49166&amp;te=1&amp;user_id=3a2e2327fa43b8ed339e87400d4d613c">New York Times</a> the city may struggle to end the contracts because of clauses in the agreements determining when they can be cancelled. But the contracts have severability "at will," Levine told Insider.</p><p data-el="text">"There's ample precedent for cancelling a park's concession contract when one of the proprieters has criminal entanglements," he said.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/de-blasio-new-york-city-will-end-contracts-with-trump-organization-2021-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/racist-origins-marijuana-prohibition-legalization-2018-2">The racist origins of marijuana prohibition</a></p>
Click here to read full news..