A pair of Democrat congressmen are demanding that the Washington, D.C., City Council prevent Donald Trump from putting his name on a new D.C. hotel because, they assert, the Trump name is now synonymous with “racist” and should be kept from the public eye.
In a letter to the Department of Interior and General Services Administration (GSA), Congressmen Ruben Gallego (D, AZ) and Tony Cárdenas (D, CA) say that Trump should not be allowed to have his name “prominently displayed” on the hotel set to open in 2016 at the Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue, only a few blocks from the White House.
In the letter, the pair reminds the GSA that the government has “a responsibility to ensure that public lands are welcoming places” and then points to Trump’s “insulting comments” as a reason to keep his name out of public view.
“Trump’s recent and repeated remarks disparaging women, Mexican-Americans, and other Latinos are hateful, divisive and completely inaccurate,” the letter states, continuing:
We firmly believe this kind of repulsive speech has no place in our public discourse. As a result of these comments, the Trump name is now inextricably linked to the anti-immigrant, anti-Latino and anti-woman sentiments that he continues to loudly and publically [SIC] espouse.
“We understand that the Department of Interior rightly prohibits the display of racist or insensitive emblems on lands it controls,” Gallego and Cárdenas wrote. They added:
In accordance with this policy and in keeping with the Department’s recent efforts to bar the Washington Redskins’ logo on public lands, we urge you to use all available authorities under current law to prevent the Trump name from being prominently displayed at the new hotel.
The pair concluded by saying that the “Trump name and logo have come to serve as a divisive reminder of Donald Trump’s reprehensible words.” They insisted that a Trump sign would “send a message” of “intolerance.”
The congressmen made their focus quite clear. As far as they are concerned, the name “Trump” is now synonymous with “racist.” Additionally, the only place the word “America” or “Americans” is used in the letter is the one time it is hyphenated with “Mexican.” The word “Latino,” though, is used throughout.
Gallego released a separate statement, saying, “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.”
A spokesman for the Interior Department had no comment on Tuesday and referred inquiries to the GSA. Trump similarly has yet to comment on the letter.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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