PANAMA CITY, Panama — Workers began removing the Trump name from the only Trump-branded hotel in Latin America on Monday after the majority owner of the Trump Panama hotel won a legal battle to remove the president’s company as its manager.
In early afternoon, a worker hooked a crowbar behind the “T” in the large “Trump” sign outside the hotel along Panama City’s waterfront and hit the crowbar with a hammer. After a few blows, the letter was pried loose and fell.
In about a minute, the worker had removed the entire name. For the third time since Inauguration Day, the Trump brand was coming down from a hotel.
Earlier Monday, majority owner Orestes Fintiklis – a Cypriot businessman now based in Miami – said that a Panamanian legal official had allowed him to take over the hotel’s administration.
The legal official had visited the hotel that morning with a police escort. The official did not say anything to reporters on the scene, so the exact nature of her decision was not clear.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
After the official’s decision, Fintiklis said he had won a weeks-long legal battle with the Trump Organization, which he blames for the hotel’s declining revenue and low occupancy rates.
“Today, this dispute has been settled by the judges and the authorities of this country,” Fintiklis told reporters. He declared that he was so impressed by Panama’s legal system that he would soon become a Panamanian citizen himself.
If it wasn’t the end of the standoff at the Trump hotel, it seemed at least to be a turning point. For the past week, this 70-story building in Panama’s capital – designed to resemble a billowing sail – has been the scene of shoving matches between rival security guards, repeated visits by police, power outages and reports of documents being shredded.
Now, for the first time, Fintiklis seemed in control.
“And now, as you guessed it, I will play the piano,” Fintiklis told a crowd of reporters. He then began to play a tune on the piano in the hotel lobby, repeating a ritual that he had used to mark previous victories in the case. This time, he played what he said was a traditional Greek song, “Accordeon,” an anti-fascist anthem, and he sang along in Greek.
The apparent end of the Trump Panama hotel illustrated how – in some areas – Trump’s divisive presidency appears to have damaged the fortunes of his businesses. Trump’s businesses were often built to attract residents of coastal U.S. cities and foreign countries. Then, as a politician, Trump often sought to turn coastal elites and foreign governments into political boogeymen.
Since Donald Trump took office, his name and his company have also been removed from Trump hotels in Toronto and Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.