A Panamanian magistrate ordered managers and security to vacate the 70-story Trump-branded hotel in Panama City, following tense interactions between the building's owner and the employees of the "luxury" hotel. The typical business model followed by the Trump Organization is to find buildings under construction or completed and negotiate a branding contract with the owners/developers. In this case, the brand had become so toxic (especially in Latin America) that the hotel wasn't profitable. An investor representing the hotel's owners association, Orestes Fintiklis, moved to evict the Trump Organization employees, who resisted eviction. From the AP story:
"The intervention resolves the standoff between Trump’s family hotel business and Fintiklis, who sought to take physical control of the property on behalf of the hotel owners. Though the owners tried to fire Trump’s company last year, the Trump Organization had disputed the termination as legally invalid — and refused to hand over the property....The fight ended quietly when a Panamanian judicial official accompanied by police came to help enforce Fintiklis’ claim to the property. More than a half dozen of Trump’s security officials were seen leaving the hotel. The whereabouts of the Trump hotel management team could not be immediately determined, but Fintiklis declared the fight over.Con man and bigot Donald "Rump" Trump is notorious for litigating, so expect this to unwind further, unless of course he accurately reads the handwriting on the wall and comes to the conclusion that his ugly behavior and tarnished reputation repulses potential customers at his tacky properties. Nah, he'll litigate.
BONUS: They're not wasting any time in ripping Rump's name off of the hotel. Bwahahaha.
BONUS II: We like Mr. Fintilkis' style:
Majority owner of Trump Hotel in Panama declares victory against the Trumps in struggle for the property’s control and plays a victory anthem on the hotel lobby’s piano: “Accordeon,” a popular Greek song about the fight against fascism pic.twitter.com/jS5Zp4cp3M— Kirk Semple (@KirkSemple) March 5, 2018
(photo: Rump's known for picking fights.)
