New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city will be severing all contracts with the Trump Organization following the Jan. 6 siege at the Capitol.
De Blasio announced that the city would be severing ties to the Trump Organization on Wednesday morning. He had said a day earlier that the city was looking into ending the contracts “very, very carefully and very quickly.”
“The city of New York is severing all contracts with the Trump organization,” he said Wednesday on Morning Joe. “Our legal team has done an assessment, and the contracts make very clear, if a company, the leadership of that company is engaged in criminal activity, we have the right to sever the contract. Inciting an insurrection, let’s be clear, I’ll say these words again, inciting an insurrection against the United States government clearly constitutes criminal activity. So the city of New York will no longer have anything to do with the Trump Organization. They have profited from these contracts. They will profit no longer.”
The mayor also explained that the Trump Organization profits “about $17 million” annually from four different contracts, which include three that are in Manhattan and one in the Bronx.
De Blasio’s comments come as the president continues to receive condemnation for urging his supporters to pressure lawmakers into not certifying the Electoral College for President-elect Joe Biden. The siege of the Capitol left five people dead, and more than 70 have been arrested. Twitter and Facebook banned him from their platforms, citing concerns he would incite violence. Democrats have launched an impeachment effort, and organizations have cut ties with him and his administration.
De Blasio also said the decision to terminate the contracts were “clear as a bell,” and said that the president’s role in the siege was “grounds for severing these contracts and we’re moving to do that right away.”
“Yet another example of Mayor de Blasio’s blatant disregard for the facts. 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,” Eric Trump said in a statement, according to NBC New York. “This is nothing more than political discrimination, an attempt to infringe on the first amendment and we plan to fight vigorously.”
