Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., abruptly canceled a Christian aid group’s planned event to pray for the Kurdish people.
Frontier Alliance International had planned to host its event, “A Night of Prayer for the Kurds,” at the Trump International Hotel, but staff contacted the organization this week and said that the event could no longer proceed.
The group’s founder, Dalton Thomas, told the Washington Post that the reasons behind why the event was canceled were “hazy.”
Administrator Charlene Struebing said that hotel staff told the organization there were security concerns and that there could be potential protesters outside because the aid group decided to hold its event at the hotel.
“They said they’ve gotten a lot of security concerns and they couldn’t accommodate enough security,” Struebing said. “I think it’s more related to people protesting our event than it was anything we were doing.”
FAI is a nonprofit group that gives medical assistance to people in the Middle East, including to the Kurds. Thomas said that the decision to host the event at Trump’s hotel was met with resistance after Trump moved troops out of northern Syria, allowing Turkey to invade and attack the Kurds.
“We’ve been bombarded with emails and responses on social media and phone calls of people who are understandably confused by why we would choose to do [the event] at this location, at Trump Hotel, which is owned by the president, who made this decision that is causing so much bloodshed and turmoil right now for the Kurds,” Thomas said in a video.
The event itself is not canceled, however. Thomas said that FAI has been refunded and will instead hold it at the Grand Hyatt Washington.
