At the Trump International Hotel and Tower Toronto, the interior’s dominant tones are golden cream and black. Or, as the marketing materials make clear, “champagne and caviar.”
“One of the hotel’s few displays of colour,” as put by a 2011 news release, is the mosaic covering the wall of the porte cochère, the covered entrance off Adelaide, “that will immediately set Trump Toronto’s multicultural tone.”
The artwork, by Toronto’s Stephen Andrews, is called A Small Part Of Something Larger and semi-abstractly depicts a diverse crowd of faces as seen from a distance. It’s based on 50 or so photos Andrews took during a Raptors game at the Air Canada Centre, hoping, he said, to capture “a place in Toronto where the idea of multiculturalism performed itself.”
During development of the Trump Toronto project, artists were asked to submit proposals on “the theme of immigration.”
And so at the base of one of the tallest towers on Toronto’s skyline stands a large-scale tribute to some of the very values that the property’s namesake rails against. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Donald Trump famously proclaimed at the June 16 launch of his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
According to Gawker’s Comprehensive List Of Everyone Trying To Sever Ties With Donald Trump, those comments – and his firm and repeated doubling down on anti-immigrant sentiments – prompted 13 individuals, 12 companies and two public bodies to end or attempt to end their formal relationships with Trump in the following three weeks. In the cases of NASCAR, ESPN and the PGA of America, that meant moving planned events away from Trump properties.
Trump’s Chicago hotel was picketed, as were the sites of yet-to-open projects in Vancouver and Washington, DC. In Toronto, the hospitality workers’ union held an August 6 rally at the Trump Tower, to celebrate the city’s “diverse and proud immigrant heritage” they even brought a mariachi band. The Weinstein Company decided against returning to the Trump for this year’s TIFF, but the film studio insisted their decision to go elsewhere was a coincidence and had nothing to do with “politicalness.”
As suggested by the mosaic in the porte cochère, however, the relationship between the Toronto building and its brand isn’t exactly a straightforward one.
(Here’s where I admit that I actually did some copywriting and proofreading for the Trump Toronto back in 2012, when I was still freelancing, correctly guessing that it would be radically, absurdly different from everything else I had ever done.)
The first thing to understand about Trump Toronto is that it’s more or less a franchise. Until recently, a disclaimer on trumptoronto.ca made this explicit, explaining that the building is “not owned, developed or sold by Donald J. Trump, the Trump Organization or any of their principals or affiliates,” but rather that “Talon International Inc., the developer of the property, and the residents of the property, use the ‘Trump’ name and mark under licenses from Trump Marks Toronto LP.” Those licences, it adds, “may be terminated or revoked according to their terms.”
Similarly, “Trump Toronto Hotel Management Corp. was retained to manage the operations of the hotel and the residences pursuant [to] the terms of certain management agreements,” which are also revocable.
In other words, the developer (Talon) licenses the brand and pays Trump’s Delaware-incorporated hotel management company to handle the building’s operations. This is not an uncommon arrangement for Trump’s eponymous edifices.
In addition to the name, the brand includes the larger public image. Promotional materials for the Trump Toronto showcase photos of Trump and his offspring, as well as glowing quotes attributed to them. The website goes so far as to describe the guy – who came to Toronto for the 2007 groundbreaking and 2012 grand opening – as “a living illustration of the American Dream.”
When buyers of the building’s “hotel condo” units recently took the developer to court for having allegedly misled them as to their investment prospects, they named Donald John Trump Sr. as a defendant in the suit. “The marketing and promotional materials extol Trump’s experience throughout the world in building first-class profitable hotels,” the plaintiffs wrote in their submission. “Customers flock to Trump’s hotels because of the Trump brand.”
Therefore, they contended, Trump himself should be held responsible for any acts of negligence carried out under his banner.
But Superior Court Justice Paul Perell didn’t buy that argument. “Ultimately, the allegation against Mr. Trump is some form of guilt by association because his name was associated with Talon’s project,” he wrote in his July 10 decision, ruling that it wasn’t enough to hold Trump liable. The buyers also lost the overall case and were ordered last week to pay costs of $58,000.
So Donald Trump may not be accountable for the Trump Toronto, but should the Trump Toronto be accountable for Donald Trump? To the extent that the venture leverages his persona, shouldn’t it rise and fall with his reputation?
Getting official answers about the local tower involves a kind of virtual jet-setting. I called the media contact for Trump Residences Toronto (the luxury condos in the building’s upper half), who transferred me to a representative for the hotel side of the operation, who in turn put me in touch with their Toronto publicist, who hooked me up with the Trump Hotel Collection’s San Francisco-based PR rep. (All were unfailingly friendly and polite.) I emailed my questions to the latter, and she worked with Trump’s New York City office to come up with responses, which I’m told can be attributed to a spokesperson for the Collection.
Impressively, they praise Trump’s candidacy while simultaneously dissociating themselves from any controversial elements of it.
Has Mr. Trump’s run for president had an effect, one way or the other, on the Toronto hotel?
“Mr. Trump is currently leading in all national polls and there is tremendous positive excitement and buzz surrounding the Trump Brand including Trump International Hotel, Toronto.”
And those remarks about Mexican immigrants? Does the Trump Toronto have any comment?
“Mr. Trump’s comments regarding illegal immigration, a topic that he has brought to the forefront of the 2016 election cycle, are unrelated to the operation of Trump International Hotel, Toronto, therefore we do not have any comment.”
They declined to answer my question about whether, given Mr. Trump’s professed displeasure with the idea of a woman using a breast pump, potential hotel guests should be concerned about the acceptability of such devices on the property.
If the building banks on the aura of Trump without interrogating the troubled flesh at the centre, you could probably view the porte cochère’s multicultural mosaic as an extension of such obliviousness. But perhaps it’s actually subversive?
Rina Greer, one of the consultants retained in 2007 to devise the project’s public art plan [pdf], attributes the “immigration” theme to Val Levitan, then the president and CEO of Talon International Development.
“Donald Trump was not involved at all in developing this concept, nor was he involved in any aspect of the public art components for the site,” she says in an email. “The developer wanted the building to welcome people from all over the world,” hoping the attitude would reinforce “Canada’s long-standing support of immigration and a multicultural society.”
Levitan left Talon in 2013, and attempts to reach him at JVL Labs, the Markham-based video-slot-machine company he co-founded with his father, were unsuccessful.
For Andrews, the artist, the work was indeed a “subtle critique.”
“Certainly what’s understood of sports crowds is it’s the proletariat, even though the seats in the front row of Raptors games go for thousands of dollars,” he says. “I think you get every sort of strata there.” He wanted that image to engage with the front door and the celebrities entering the building – a “kind of outside looking in.”
Asked if he’s found himself reflecting on the fresh irony of his Trump-commissioned ode to immigration, he points out that Trump’s “been notorious for this kind of shenanigans for a very long time, so I went in to the project with eyes wide open.”
(The triptych of paintings he created as a study is part of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Stephen Andrews POV show, running through August 30.)
He finds it “completely horrifying” that Trump is experiencing political success despite his comments but observes that this kind of “questionable contradiction” between a public work and the money that supports it is common.
“So do his remarks surprise me? No. Did I think it was complicated going into this thing? Yes. Did I need to make money? Yes. Did I want to make a work of art that I thought was at least in some kind of discourse around where it was? Yes.”
Not just one of the hotel’s few splashes of colour, A Small Part Of Something Larger is a rare flash of self-awareness – just barely swallowed up by the 65-storey monument to everything it isn’t.
Zach Ruiter
Q&A with the Trump Hotel Collection
To what extent are guests and purchasers drawn in by the Trump brand?
Many people are drawn in by the Trump brand because they understand we offer an unparalleled experience of luxury hospitality. Mr. Trump, Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric are deeply passionate about everything they do and leave no detail overlooked. This meticulous, personal approach is what sets us apart from our competitors.
How would you describe what the Trump brand stands for or means?
The Trump Hotel Collection is one of the finest luxury hotel companies in the world. Our properties are known for their prime locations, achieving the highest accolades, and offering incredible amenities and a personalized customized service experience.
Has Mr. Trump’s run for president had any effect, one way or the other, on the Toronto hotel?
Mr. Trump is currently leading in all National Polls and there is tremendous positive excitement and buzz surrounding the Trump Brand including Trump International Hotel, Toronto.
The Trump name is used by the Toronto property under license. Until recently, the website carried a disclaimer that stated the license from Trump Marks Toronto LP could be “terminated or revoked according to their terms.” What can you tell me about the terms of the license?
We will not comment on the terms of our agreement with the developers of Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto. The property, managed to five-star standards by the Trump Hotel Collection, is achieving record occupancy levels and continues to outperform all of their competitors in the market.
Mr. Trump has recently made some controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants. Does the Trump Toronto have any comment on them?
Mr. Trump’s comments regarding illegal immigration, a topic that he has brought to the forefront of the 2016 election cycle, are unrelated to the operation of Trump International Hotel, Toronto, therefore we do not have any comment. Our singular focus remains on managing the finest luxury hotel in Toronto and beyond.
jonathang@nowtoronto.com | @goldsbie
