Trump Golf Links employees defended their employer while 9/11 advocates spoke against the entity at an oversight hearing meant to review former President Donald Trump’s license to operate a public golf course in the Bronx.
The golf course operates atop a former landfill on city parkland in Throggs Neck’s Ferry Point Park abutting the Whitestone Bridge. The city in 2012 granted a 20-year license to Trump Ferry Point LLC to operate the public course, which has a menu of fees to play at what workers described as a high-end course. The existence of the course has long caused tension for progressive Democrats in the city, particularly since Trump launched his political career in 2015, and more buttons have been pushed as the course has plans from Oct. 13-15 to host the Saudi Arabia-backed Aramco Team Series women’s golf tournament.
Trump is the sole guarantor, CEO and president of Trump Ferry Point LLC while longtime Trump Organization CFO and Trump accountant Allen Weisselberg, who recently plead guilty to 15 felony charges, was the CFO and executive vice president for the entity when the license was obtained, according to the City Council’s Parks and Recreation Committee Chair Shekar Krishnan.
After a failed attempt at ending the arrangement with Trump under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, Krishnan and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, both Queens Democrats, argued that NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue could take a new route to immediately terminate the license, citing both Saudi involvement and investigations into Trump and his colleagues.
“Trump Ferry Point LLC is simply unworthy of a license to operate our public parkland,” said Krishnan, arguing at Thursday’s hearing that if Donoghue complied, the license would expire in 25 days — in time to jeopardize the planned golf tournament.
But without cooperation from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, the tournament will go on as planned.
Brett Eagleson, of advocacy group 9/11 Justice, and Tim Frolich, a survivor of the collapse of the south tower, cited the FBI’s Operation ENCORE report as reason to denounce city involvement with the Kingdom. The report, which was declassified last year, reveals connections between Saudi officials and 9/11 hijackers. Eagleson and Frolich testified that Trump misleadingly said he would declassify the report before keeping it under wraps prior to President Joe Biden’s decision to do so.
“The Aramco tournament scheduled for Oct. 13 at Trump’s golf course in the Bronx is a tragedy,” said Frolich. “It is a throat punch to every single New York City resident, every single person in this country — it should not take place and this can be stopped, and it needs to be stopped.”
But employees of Trump Links defended the public institution.
Liz Sanchez, a Bronxite who works in the accounting department for the Ferry Point golf course, said she witnessed 9/11 firsthand while working at 27 Maiden Lane, an office near the Twin Towers. She said she lost a family member, good friends and coworkers due to the attack.
“It was a horrible day that I will never forget, but it was 21 years since it happened and I have moved on — 21 years, it’s a long time,” she said. “I lost my father two years ago due to Covid. So should I sue the city for not doing what they need to do? No.”
She argued the golf facility is separate from Trump as an individual and that city officials “basically just don’t like him.”
“We work there, we maintain it, we love it, we have so many families that depend on this,” she said of golf course staff.
Brian Crowell, the general manager for the golf course, said that while the decision to host the tournament was at a level above him, his staff has a duty to do their best to run a great event and that for them it’s not about politics, but their livelihoods — he said there are about 170 employees. Calling the staff “very patriotic,” he offered sympathy to the 9/11 victims, saying he lost friends to the attack, but that this is “about a golf operation.”
“We are not political,” he said. “I know it’s hard because everyone sees the name in big concrete stones as they drive over the bridge, but we are not political. We are a golf operation and a very nice dining operation, and we provide a great experience for the members of this city and the surrounding communities. We’re charitable, we’re doing our best and I feel very proud of the people that work for us on this property.”
As for the Saudi connection, Ronald Lieberman, an executive vice president for the Trump Organization who said he supports the decision to hold the tournament, argued that Fortune 500 companies do business with the Kingdom all the time.
“It’s just part of doing business,” he said.
In addition to the 9/11 advocates’ argument, the City Council officials argued that criminal investigations into The Trump Organization, investigations into and lawsuits against Trump himself, as well as Weisselberg’s guilty pleas as CFO of the Trump Organization show that Trump Ferry Point LLC shouldn’t be in charge of public property. The Trump entity attested, however, that Weisselberg currently has no role in the operation or management of the golf course, and the Trump Organization does not directly own or operate Trump Ferry Point LLC, according to written testimony by Commissioner Donaghue to the council.
Krishnan, however, pointed to an instance in 2019 where Weisselberg used the Trump Links clubhouse at no charge for his granddaughter’s bat-mitzvah, and also questioned how accessible the course is to local residents. Attorney Stephen Younger of Foley Hoag LLP, who supported Krishnan’s arguments at the hearing, said a certification of Trump’s net worth from accounting firm Mazar that was part of the golf course license agreement was taken back, pointing to the firm’s move earlier this year to withdraw its statements of financial condition for Trump from 2011 to 2020. Yet in her written testimony, Donaghue argued that while Trump “is a guarantor of certain obligations” under the license, most of the monetary obligations for the golf course deal were related to the years-ago construction of the clubhouse.
But Younger, in sum, argued at the hearing that by contract, the parks commissioner has sole discretion to end the license at any time as long as the decision is not “arbitrary or capricious.” He said it would be neither.
Mayor Adams’ administration approved the permit for the golf tournament, determining that there were no legal grounds to prevent the tournament from taking place, according to the City Council committee’s report. Additionally, Adams’ team argued that while they’re against the tournament, terminating the contract could bring legal troubles while costing the city millions — Trump’s team has claimed the contractual termination fee could run the city $30 million.
“While I share the Speaker’s and the Chair’s anger at the decision by Trump Ferry to host the Aramco tournament, it would be irresponsible for the City not to abide by this contract in this circumstance,” wrote Donaghue.
Younger, however, argued at the hearing that the termination fee the city would owe to Trump’s LLC could be as low as $5 million, and likely less than $10 million. Lieberman, of the Trump Organization, disputed these numbers at the hearing, calling them “completely out of wack.”
Reach Aliya Schneider at aschneider@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4597. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimesarm
