New York City is severing its contracts with the Trump Organization, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, January 13, 2021, a result of the president inciting a mob of Trump supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol last week, he said.
“The city of New York is severing all contracts with the Trump Organization,” he said on MSNBC, where he made the announcement. “The city of New York will no longer have anything to do with the Trump Organization.”
The announcement is perhaps the most symbolic blow to the outgoing president, who once called the city, where grew up and built his empire and brand, home.
De Blasio said the contracts, which cover four sites – three in Manhattan and one in the Bronx – worth about $17 million annually, include language that allows them to be severed if anyone involved in the Trump Organization is engaged in criminal activity.
“Our legal team has done an assessment, and the contract makes it very clear: If a company and the leadership of that company is engaged in criminal activity, we have the right to sever the contract,” he said. “Inciting an insurrection against the United States government clearly constitutes criminal activity.”
“The president of the United States directed a mob to attack the U.S. Congress,” he said. “It’s criminal activity. It’s very clear. The lawyers looked at it. It’s clear as a bell.”
The announcement comes as Trump, who is set to be impeached for a second time Wednesday, has found himself in increasingly lonely quarters. In the seven days since his supporters stormed the Capitol, members of Congress – including a growing faction within his own party – have called for his resignation or signaled they’ll be supporting impeachment; two of his Cabinet secretaries have resigned in protest along with several other members of the White House staff; social media sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have removed his accounts, and businesses groups are taking pains to put space between themselves and the president.
