NY State Commissioner Wants To Permanently Strip Trump Name From Park

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All his life, Donald Trump associated himself and his brand with New York City. Now, his hometown is disassociating itself with the disgraced, twice-impeached former president, who recently decided his home state is Florida now.

When Trump failed to turn a 436-acre property in the New York City suburbs into a golf course, he donated the land to the city with the provision that they name it after him. The city had discussed during Trump’s presidency the possibility of removing it, and Trump threatened to take back his donation if he did, since publicity is the sole goal for Trump in every instance. Now, the state is revisiting the idea after the former president incited a riot against the U.S. Congress, an act that made him the only president in American history to be impeached twice.

According to the Associated Press:

‘Trump donated the land to the state, receiving a significant tax write-off, after he was unable to get approval for a private golf course there. It was never completed as a fully functional state park and isn’t listed on the website of the state office of parks, recreation and historic preservation…When a name change was proposed in 2015, Trump threatened to take back the land if his name was stripped.’

As the dust from the Trump administration, the former president may need to direct his focus to more pressing matters. He has an upcoming trial in the United States Senate in which it is not clear that he will escape unscathed, not to mention a pending criminal investigation in the SDNY. His businesses are also suffering as more and more vendors and other businesses are fleeing any association with the Trump brand. A recent analysis showed that Trump’s real estate properties in New York dropped in value dramatically over the course of his presidency.

Reports show that Trump’s real estate properties are plummeting in value since the start of his presidency, and only getting worse.

‘Data from UrbanDigs, analysed by the real estate website Curb, suggested that even Trump properties that have removed his name from their branding saw their value drop by as much as 17 per cent since 2016.

‘The changes represent reductions in value significantly greater than the shift in property values across Manhattan as a  whole, estimated to have fallen 9 per cent.

As for the donated parklands, it is unlikely that the name will be removed since the decision to do so would likely rest with local officials in a district that Trump won in 2016 and 2020. However, internet users have started campaigns to help with the name change, choosing far more worthy Americans to name a park after.

‘A Change.org petition asks to rename the park for Sojourner Truth, an icon of the abolitionist and women’s rights movements. There’s also a bill under consideration to rename the park for Heather Heyer, who died when a car struck counterprotesters at the “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2017.’