NEW YORK — The city has no “legal foundation” to cancel its contract with former President Donald Trump’s golf course in the Bronx, a Manhattan judge ruled Friday.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to strip Trump’s name from the city-owned Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point Park in February 2021 after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
But Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Debra James wrote in an 18-page ruling that a deal is a deal — even if it was negotiated in 2011 between Trump and city lawyers under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“It is almost certainly the case, as in most long-term relationships, contractual or otherwise, that the parties a decade ago, with a different — third consecutive term municipal administration — and underdeveloped parkland, did not foresee the breakdown in such relationship rendered adversarial,” wrote James.
The city had justified terminating the 20-year license agreement early for the Throgs Neck fairway by arguing the Trump brand was “irretrievably tarnished.” Trump’s role inciting the insurrection had breached his obligation to “operate a first class, tournament quality daily fee golf course,” the city wrote in legal filings.
But the judge ruled those arguments lacked a “legal foundation.”
The language of the contract “fails to support the city’s argument that the golf course had to draw major tournaments to continue operating,” James wrote.
A Trump Org spokeswoman said in a statement that the 18-hole golf course will remain open through 2032. De Blasio had “weaponized” the city Parks Department to advance a partisan agenda and “interfere with free enterprise,” the spokeswoman, Amanda Miller, said.
“As we have said since the beginning, the City’s efforts to terminate our long term license agreement to operate Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point Park were nothing more than a political vendetta,” the statement read.
The city had not yet decided whether to appeal.
“Anyone holding a City concession is held to a high standard. We are disappointed in the Court’s decision, and we are reviewing our legal options,” a Law Department spokesman said.
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