Former President Donald Trump compared New York City to "communist countries" after calling out Mayor Bill de Blasio for canceling his company's contract with a city-owned golf course in the Bronx borough.
"The course has received rave reviews, is considered one of the top ten open to the public facilities in the United States (could even be the best!), is designed for tournament play, and Mayor De Blasio wants to take it away after all of the work was so successfully done, and so much money was spent," Trump said in a Tuesday statement. "So unfair—this is what happens in Communist Countries, not in America!"
Earlier this year, de Blasio announced it would terminate the city's contracts with the Trump Organization in the wake of the January 6 Capitol riot.
"Inciting an insurrection against the U.S. government clearly constitutes criminal activity," de Blasio told MSNBC in January. "The City of New York will no longer have anything to do with the Trump Organization."
The city moved to cancel its contract not only at the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point but also at two ice-skating rinks in Central Park, as well as the Central Park Carousel. De Blasio estimates that the Trump Organization makes $17 million annually from the contracts.
Until 2015, the Bronx had waited more than three decades for the land by Whitestone Bridge to be transformed into an 18-hole public golf course.
"At the request of Mayor Bloomberg, the former Mayor of New York City, I took a longtime scandal-ridden site in the Bronx, which for almost 30 years had been a money-losing disaster that the city could not get built, and transformed it into a magnificent Jack Nicklaus Signature designed golf course, club house and amenities, which employs a large number of people and has been a showcase of beauty and success," Trump said on Tuesday.
"Now under Mayor De Blasio, he wants to CONFISCATE the project from me for no reason whatsoever, and terminate my long-term arrangement with the city—and to think I just opened a beautiful $10 million clubhouse," he added.
The Trump Organization had signed a 20-year contract with the city to run the course. This year marked the sixth year that the company has run Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point.
The company sued the city earlier this year, arguing that the contract was wrongfully terminated based on de Blasio's political motivations against the former president.
"Mayor de Blasio had a pre-existing, politically-based predisposition to terminate Trump-related contracts, and the city used the events of January 6, 2021 as a pretext to do so," the suit said.
At the time, the mayor's office responded to the challenge, saying "Donald Trump directly incited a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. You do that, and you lose the privilege of doing business with the City of New York."
Newsweek reached out to de Blasio for comment but did not hear back before publication.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
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