Arizona congressman looks to keep Donald Trump’s name off Washington hotel
An Arizona congressman wants to keep Donald Trump's name off a new hotel in Washington.
U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., has sent a letter to U.S. Interior SecretarySally Jewell asking to keep the Trump name off a new hotel the business mogul is building at the Old Post Office Building in Washington D.C.
Gallego and U.S. Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., are upset with Trump's bombastic rhetoric related to undocumented immigrants and controversial comments related to women.
They cite Obama administration efforts to keep the Washington Redskins football team's name off of public lands as precedent for their Trump request.
The federal government selected Trump to build what is slated to be called the Trump International Hotel at the Old Post Office complex on Pennsylvania Avenue just five blocks from the White House. Trump is currently the Republican front-runner in the 2016 presidential race.
Gallego and Cardenas' full letter is available here.
Officials from the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Here's Gallego's statement on the request:
"The federal government has a responsibility to keep emblems of racism and hatred out of public lands. In accordance with the Department of the Interior's efforts to ban the Washington Redskins' logo from public lands, we are calling on the Department of the Interior and GSA to keep Mr. Trump's name from being prominently displayed at what is a historical federal building in the heart of our nation's capital.
"Given Mr. Trump's insulting, hateful, and divisive comments about Latinos and women, the Trump name will forever be linked to anti-immigrant, anti-Latino, and anti-women sentiments. To prominently display Mr. Trump's last name over the old post office building would send a message of exclusion and intolerance to millions of Latinos and women in the district and across the country."
Source: Mike Sunnucks - Phoenix business Journal