A self-described germaphobe and admitted clean freak, Donald Trump’s personal standards don’t seem to translate to his namesake eateries, with many properties showing a consistent track record of critical health code violations, Daily News reports.
Dirty food preparation areas, broken sewage systems, and mice in the kitchen all make the list of violations identified by New York City health inspections, including those for Trump’s keystone property, Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. In fact, Trump Tower in particular has received regular violations each year since 2014 with infractions including live roaches, filth flies, and mouse tracks.
Trump, due to his decision not to divest himself from business interests after taking on the presidency, remains the chief executive officer of the property, though he presumably no longer plays a role in day-t0-day operations of the business.
Even so, the pattern fits with what former associates have described as a tendency for Trump to emphasize a superficial veneer of luxury over substantive quality in many of his endeavors.
“He has always been far more focused on creating an image for his properties than in spending what it takes to make them excellent,” one of these associates said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization did not have a comment about the most recent mouse-related infractions, but did indicate that violations were regularly corrected immediately and that the restaurant maintained an “A” rating with the City Department of Health.
To be fair, mice are not unheard of in New York City restaurants, with about 22 percent of inspections finding evidence of them within the city, a Health Department spokesperson said.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort was slapped with 13 health violations at its last kitchen inspection https://t.co/WKIaNXaWw7 pic.twitter.com/klS0KxZbTF
— CNN (@CNN) April 14, 2017
In addition to the city properties, multiple Trump-owned golf courses and clubs elsewhere in the country have faced similar violations from local inspectors, with Trump’s Mar-a-Lago “Winter White House” subjected to as many as 13 violations in a single inspection.
Interestingly, Trump has taken other restaurants to task for much more superficial infractions, particularly in response to a slight by the owners of the establishment. Last year, he lashed out at the Red Hen restaurant in Virginia after the establishment refused to serve White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders due to her affiliation with the Trump administration.
“The Red Hen restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors, and windows rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders,” Trump said at the time. “I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!”
