The Trump Soho hotel’s signage was gone from the hotel’s awning on Spring St. on Thursday morning, having been removed sometime the evening before. For a while, all that was left was the “Ghost of Trump Past” — as in a ghost image of the place’s former name. But maintenance staff soon blotted that out, too. The hotel, at Spring and Varick Sts., is under new management, with its owners having bought out the management contract of the Trump Organization. According to reports, business at the place plummeted during Trump’s campaign for president and only worsened after he won election. NBA basketball teams, led by Cavaliers superstar LeBron James, have made it a point to stay elsewhere while in town. And celebrities are said to have shifted to The Greenwich hotel in Tribeca, owned by Trump super-foe Robert DeNiro — and, of course, so have the paparazzi that cover them. Koi, the restaurant on the Spring St. hotel’s ground floor, also went under. In short the place has been, to use one of Trump’s favorite put-downs…a real loser. At any rate, the soaring tower has been renamed The Dominick Hotel. By 4 p.m. Thursday, the canopy was spic and span, with no sign of “Trump” ever having been there. As a woman was passing by the day before, she said the sign’s pending removal didn’t go far enough. “Too bad it’s just the Trump sign that’s coming down,” she spat.
— Lincoln Anderson
and Tequila Minsky
