After Donald Trump sued Jose Andres for pulling his forthcoming restaurant from the real estate mogul’s new Washington, D.C. hotel, the famed chef slammed Trump in a Saturday statement.
“This lawsuit is both unsurprising and without merit,” Andres said in a statement about the lawsuit on Saturday, according to Politico. “Simply put, Mr. Trump’s comments made ThinkFoodGroup’s participation in this project impossible and constituted a breach which the landlord, Trump Old Post Office LLC, refused to remedy. And despite our attempts to negotiate an amicable resolution, we were ultimately forced to terminate the lease.”
Trump on Friday filed a $10 million lawsuit against Andres for a breach of contract. Andres pulled out of the deal to open a restaurant in Trump’s hotel when the presidential candidate called Mexican immigrants “rapists.”
In the lawsuit against Andres’ company, ThinkFoodGroup, Trump’s lawyer said that Andres could not nix the deal over statements made by Trump, and that the chef should not have been surprised by the Republican’s comments.
“Mr. Andres’ stated refusal to proceed with his obligations under the Lease were allegedly based on his personal offense to statements made by Mr. Trump with respects to illegal immigration during his June 16, 2015 presidential campaign announcement speech,” the lawsuit reads. “Mr. Andres’ offense is curious in light of the fact that Mr. Trump’s publicly shared views on immigration have remained consistent for many years, and Mr. Trump’s willingness to frankly share his opinions is widely known.”
