Why the Central Park ice rink is playing down its Trump associations

There are some New York City landmarks that are on everyone’s itinerary. The Statue of Liberty, of course, is one. The Empire State Building is another.

The hellish fever dream that is Times Square is definitely the one I’m dragged to most by wheedling friends and relatives, most of whom want me to snap pictures of them standing on a platform with their arm around a knock-off Disney character with worn-down fur. What’s more New York than standing in front of H&M with Minky the Non-Disney-Affiliated Rodent, right?

There is one tourist attraction I genuinely do enjoy visiting with out-of-towners, though, and that’s Central Park. Not even seasoned New Yorkers can be cynical about that idyllic stretch of green in the middle of Manhattan (even if they are, rightly, cynical about the horse-drawn carriages which traverse the perimeter). And if they visit in winter, there’s only one place they want to go after the obligatory visit to the Rockefeller Christmas tree: the ice rink.

We all know the Central Park Wollman ice rink. We’ve seen it in a thousand different movies. People’s first dates, first kisses and dramatic proposals have all happened there. Indeed, the people of New York bigly appreciate that ice rink, which sits in pride of place underneath the towering skyscrapers due to the benevolence of a very stable genius. It’s a great place to visit after a warming seasonal covfefe.

That’s right, folks. I regret to inform those of you who haven’t already been disillusioned that the Central Park ice rink has been sponsored since the dawn of skating time (1986) by Donald Trump.

Those of you have already visited may have noticed the large, red “TRUMP” banners adorning the rink: that was your first clue. But the eagle-eyed among you may also have noticed that those banners were absent this year. As impeachment dramas played out and an increasingly divisive election campaign took hold, someone within the Trump Organisation clearly decided that advertising his connection to the rink might not be great for business. Discreetly, the large red letters declaring the president’s name were removed, and in its place were pasted uncontroversial mentions of the New York City Parks and Recreation department.

Were there some skaters who felt a lot more comfortable enjoying their holiday fun without the president’s family name emblazoned on a wall behind them this year? Undoubtedly. But how would they have felt if they knew that, like most things Donald Trump, this was all just a matter of marketing? Their comfort was assured, even as they helped line the pockets of the members of the Trump Organisation. They became unknowingly complicit in helping to keep the president rich.

The thing is, when I buy a $4.50 ticket to blunder around on a patch of frozen water in metal shoes for half an hour, I want to know at the very least that I’m not unwittingly supporting a man who was endorsed by the KKK. Ideally, I’d also like to not have my fingers sliced off. But I would settle for just the former.

One wonders what might happen to the rest of Trump’s ventures in the more liberal enclaves off the world if the Central Park ice rink is going low-key. Will Trump Tower eventually become The Tower? Will his hotel chains rebrand as something a bit less obviously Donald? Will the Trump golf courses in Scotland “forget” to make mention of their owner? It certainly might bolster sales.

The interesting part of all of this is that Trump saw his business background as beneficial to the presidency, and the presidency as surely beneficial to his businesses. As he’s doubled-down on an extremely right-wing agenda, he – or someone within his organisation – has clearly learnt that this wonderful cyclical relationship isn’t going to progress quite as planned. To keep the money rolling in in liberal, coastal cities, he’s going to have to back away from being front-and-centre where marketing is concerned. It’s going to make for an interesting psychological experiment about what the man with the orange face loves more: money or attention. It’s hardly Sophie’s Choice, but I think making it is still going to cut deep.