The Ambassador to Panama, John Feeley, resigned in January, saying that he could no longer serve Donald Trump in good conscience. He’s apparently not alone in his disenchantment with Trump. Management of the Trump International Hotel overlooking the Punta Pacific Peninsula is in dispute, with new majority owner, Orestes Fintiklis, declaring, “I am the owner,” as police and Trump employees pushed and shoved one another. “Love and peace!” cried out Fintilis, as he played a song on the piano, the lyrics of which translate as, “Fascism will not prevail!” ABC News:
This was the third visit by police to the property in less than a week. Last week, a man identified as a Trump Hotels employee could be seen hurling another man down a narrow hallway in a video obtained by ABC News.
The ongoing dispute represents an early test for U.S. diplomats navigating international relations in places where the president’s family manages properties or conducts other business ventures, and it comes just days before the scheduled resignation March 9 of the U.S. ambassador to Panama over his personal disagreements with the Trump administration.
The Trump Organization in court filings called the effort a “design to wrongfully seize control over the hotel property.”
“Rather than abide by the clear terms of the agreement he had signed, Mr. Fintiklis had been conspiring with others to remove Trump Hotels as manager and fire most, if not all, of its loyal and dedicated employees,” the Trump Organization said in a statement to the press. “Looking back, it is now apparent that Mr. Fintiklis, in flagrant violation of the commitments he had made, never had any intention of keeping his word and had been plotting a takeover and termination of Trump Hotels all along.”
Takeover, coup, call it what you will, the Trump name was ripped off the hotel with a crowbar and Fintiklis took over the premises. The Trump Organization statement says the owners “resorted to thug-like, mob style tactics, repeatedly attempting to force their way into Trump Hotels’ offices, infiltrate and disrupt its computer systems and threatening and intimidating any employee of the Hotel that resisted.”
My, my.