Do you know the tale of King Midas?
Everything he touched turned to gold. Life was great until he tried to eat and turned his food gold. Then he tried hugging his daughter and wound up gilding her as well.
It appears as though we’ve got our very own King Midas occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but instead of gold, everything he touches turns to…well, you know.
Is there anything President Donald Trump touches he does not ultimately destroy?
Professional sports teams have for years been some of Trump’s most lucrative clients.
For example, since its opening in 2010, Trump SoHo has been a popular place for over twelve National Basketball Association (NBA) teams to stay in New York City.
Oklahoma City Thunder’s Steve Novak ordered a $20 latte there.
Toronto Raptors all-star Kyle Lowry once granted interviews from Trump SoHo lobby’s couch.
Russell Westbrook said of the place:
“I love the location of Trump Soho. You can walk right into Soho for great shopping and eating. I am always running around when I am in NYC so that is important. ”
But those days are over.
Now only one of those twelve teams stays there since Trump decided to descend a golden escalator in Trump Tower in 2015 and launched the presidential bid that changed American politics.
The Toronto Raptors. Gone. Phoenix Suns. Gone. Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings, Washington Wizards. Gone.
And the NBA is not alone.
Hockey teams Tampa Bay Lightning, the Washington Capitals, and the Carolina Hurricanes have all pulled the plug on Trump, as have major league baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers.
According to The Washington Post, only one team out of a total of 17 from four major sports still stays at Trump properties.
The Post contacted all 123 teams in the four major U.S. sports leagues to ascertain how many are still Trump’s customers. 106 responded; 18 declined to comment; 73 confirmed they had not patronized Trump properties recently; 16 stated they had stayed at a Trump hotel within the past seven years but stopped once Trump launched his White House bid.
The Golden State Warriors is one of those teams. It stopped patronizing Trump SoHo last year.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr told the Post:
“The president has seemingly made a point of dividing us as best he can. He continually offends people, and so people don’t want to stay at his hotel. It’s pretty simple.”
The sports milieu is not alone souring on Trump.
After Trump’s “fine people” defense of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the alt-right who protested to preserve Confederate statues in Charlottesville, Virginia this summer, 19 charities canceled upcoming events at Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago resort.
His California and New York golf clubs in have lost charity tournaments, and his courses in Scotland reported their 2016 losses doubled.
Radio station WNYC reported Trump SoHo corporate event bookings are down, potentially leading to staff lay-offs. Earlier this year, the hotel’s sushi restaurant, Koi, closed .
Despite claiming he no longer has a vested interest in his businesses, and has turned them over to his sons Eric and Donald Jr., he still owns them. He can still accept profits from properties such as the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, and Trump SoHo, for which his business receives 5.75 percent of operating revenue.
Before declaring his candidacy, at least three of the four major U.S. sports teams frequented Trump’s properties. Football was the only exception since National Football League (NFL) teams do not typically stay at luxury hotels, although five NFL teams declined to comment and seven did not respond to repeated Washington Post inquiries.
It seems “taking a knee” is the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Maybe Trump truly does have the Midas touch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCKsbmG8s5s
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