Donald Trump’s hotel company slammed celebrity chefs Jose
Andres and Geoffrey Zakarian for their decisions to back out of restaurant
projects at the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C., because of comments
Trump made last month about Mexican immigrants.
Trump Hotel Collection threatened to sue Andres for damages
equal to unpaid rent for the chef’s 10-year lease term plus legal fees, and
said it would enforce a non-compete clause for the Washington, D.C., area.
“Jose has no right to terminate or otherwise abandon his
obligations under the lease,” said Donald Trump Jr., executive vice present for
Trump Hotel Collection, in a statement. “Mr. Andres’ obligations under the
lease are clear and unambiguous.”
The hotelier referred to Zakarian’s decision as “foolish”
and said it has a nonrefundable $490,000 deposit from Zakarian as well as a
fully-guaranteed lease.
Andres and Zakarian said earlier this week that they would
no longer participate in the hotel project because of comments Donald Trump
made during his presidential candidacy announcement in June. Trump said, “When
Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people
that have lots of problems. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime.
They're rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.”
Earlier this week, Trump cited “many hard-working Mexicans,”
but added that “the Mexican government is forcing their most unwanted people
into the United States.”
There were protests against Trump this week in front of the Trump
International Hotel Chicago, as well as in front of the Washington hotel, which
is scheduled to open in 2016.
In Chicago, members of Unite Here Local 1 marched in front
of Trump’s hotel on Wednesday. Yesterday, protesters in Washington called for
Trump’s removal from that city’s hotel, whose landlord is the U.S. federal
government’s General Services Administration.
GSA spokeswoman Kamara Jones told Travel Weekly that “the
project will proceed as planned,” and declined to comment further.
The Spanish-born Andres agreed late last year to open a
restaurant at Trump’s Washington hotel. Representatives with Andres’s ThinkFoodGroup
didn’t respond to a request for comment from Travel Weekly.
In May, Trump Hotels and Zakarian said that a National
restaurant would be part of Trump’s Washington hotel. Zakarian also has a National
restaurant at the Benjamin in New York.
“The recent statements surrounding Mexican immigrants by
Donald Trump do not in any way align with my personal core values,” Zakarian
said in a statement. “We are a nation built from immigrants, my family
included.”
In response, Trump
Hotels said, “We know Geoffrey Zakarian very well and this decision has
absolutely nothing to do with his ‘core values.’ Zakarian is using the
distortions by the media of Mr. Trump’s comments in an opportunistic attempt to
renege on clear and unequivocal obligations under his lease.”
On Thursday, two major tour operators said they would
withdraw business from Trump’s hotels because of Trump’s comments. Pleasant
Holidays said it would stop packaging three Trump properties in Honolulu, Las
Vegas and Panama. And Apple Vacations said that it is moving its 2015 Global
Apple Gala out of Trump’s Chicago hotel to protest Trump’s remarks.