A New York state senator from Brooklyn said Monday that he plans to introduce legislation to strip Donald J. Trump State Park of its name, arguing that the real estate mogul's recent rhetoric is "hostile" to the values of the state. Citing Trump’s "increasingly hostile" rhetoric, Democratic State Sen. Dan Squadron urged Gov. Andrew Cuomo to remove the republican front-runner's name from any signage for the Donald J. Trump State Park in Westchester and Putnam counties.
In a letter to Cuomo, Squadron wrote, "As you know, Mr. Trump's rhetoric in his Presidential campaign has become increasingly hostile to the core values of our state and nation. His discriminatory proposals are unbefitting if a campaign for our country's highest office. Mr. Trump has shown that he is unworthy of having a New York State Park named in his honor," according to BuzzFeed.
The letter continues, "Mr. Trump has little historical significance to Westchester and Putnam counties, where the park is located - a reality which will hopefully continue into the future. In light of this, I ask the State to begin a public renaming process that engages the local community to find a suitable name that does not compromise our State's long history and core value of respect for diversity."
In the 1990s, Trump bought more than 400 vacant acres across Westchester and Putnam counties in the Hudson Valley for $2 million with the intention of turning it into a golf course. When the plan failed, he donated the land to the state in 2006 for a tax break valued at $100 million. The park officially closed in 2010 amid state budget cuts, even though officials said it cost just $2,500 to maintain, according to USA Today.
"If they’re going to close it, I’ll take the land back," Trump told The New York Times at the time. "It’s too bad the parks department is doing this to the people and the state. I gave that land for the purposes of a park, and I always believed that once a park is there, it would always be a park.”
