New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio's efforts to remove former President Donald Trump's name from city businesses could cost upwards of millions of dollars in taxpayer money, according to a report.
City roller rinks and a Bronx-based golf course are cited as the biggest financial bills, per The New York Post. An ownership change at the golf course alone could result in a $30 million price tag, according to the story.
De Blasio first promised to distance New York City from Trump following the January 6 Capitol riots with the mayor announcing on January 13 that the city would end terminate its contracts with the Trump Organization.
During a press conference, de Blasio said "this president [Trump] has committed an unlawful act. He has disgraced himself. He will no longer profit from his relationship with New York City. We will not allow it."
"Inciting an insurrection against the U.S. government clearly constitutes criminal activity," de Blasio said during an interview on MSNBC, also on January 13. "The City of New York will no longer have anything to do with the Trump Organization."
The contracts involved were for the historic Central Park carousel, the park's Wollman and Lasker skating rinks and the Trump Ferry Point Golf Course in The Bronx.
Rather than closing the two skating rinks six weeks early, the city instead allowed the contracts to run out without giving Trump an opportunity for renewal. The Central Park carousel, meanwhile, remained closed until mid-October, when it reopened after Central Amusement International—a company that operates in NYC's Coney Island—came to a five-year agreement with the city.
What will likely be the biggest bill to taxpayers has yet to be served, which involves the state court trying to remove the former president from the Trump Ferry Point Golf Course in the Bronx.
In a lawsuit filed in June, the Trump Organization claimed it deserves more than $30 million in reimbursements if its deal for the course is terminated.
The course, built on the site of a former garbage dump, opened in 2015 after a reported building cost of $269 million. Three years later, Trump added a new clubhouse that his organization said came at a cost of $10 million.
In its termination notice for the course's contract, which still had 13 years left on it, the city claimed "the Trump brand is now synonymous with an insurrection against the federal government," which hinders the course's ability to attract tournaments. In more recent state Supreme Court filings, the city told the judge presiding over the case that if it can't terminate "for cause" based on the Capitol riots, it would use an "at will" clause.
Trump lawyer Kenneth Caruso told The New York Post that the "at will" clause comes with a termination payment, and he claimed the cost of that payment was calculated at more than $30 million.
"They really have spared no expense and they take pride in those properties," Caruso told the Post of the Trump Organization's care of the course.
On October 12, Trump released a statement on the matter. He wrote, "I invested many millions of dollars, all cash, in this project in order to get it done, which I did, starting from scratch, in record time."
"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," Trump continued.
Trump's statement came as a city panel approved a Georgia company to take over the Bronx golf course starting on November 15. It's not yet known if golf legend Jack Nicklaus will do business with the course's new company, as he had when Trump controlled the property.
