When your sport is awash in Saudi money, but you still realize Trump is brand damaging and angle keep him away: https://t.co/Wo4WzLgJuK
— Clean Observer (@Hammbear2024) April 27, 2024
The Miami Grand Prix sent a cease and desist letter Friday night to a prominent Trump fundraiser, informing him that he cannot use a suite at an upcoming Formula One race as a high-dollar fundraiser for the Trump campaign. Trump, according to multiple people familiar with the event, has been planning to attend the race.
The letter was sent to Steven Witkoff, a longtime Trump friend who recently testified on behalf of Trump in a suit in New York that resulted in a New York judge handing down a $350 million civil fraud judgment against the former president for financial misdeeds.
“It has come to our attention that you may be using your Paddock Club Rooftop Suite for a political purpose, namely raising money for a federal election at $250,000 per ticket, which clearly violates the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix suite license agreement,” read the letter, which was obtained by The Washington Post. “If this is true, we regret to inform you that your suite license will be revoked, you will not be allowed to attend the race at any time, and we will refund you in full.”
The Miami Grand Prix is scheduled for May 5 at the Miami International Autodrome in Miami Gardens. A spokesman for the race declined to comment…
Reached Friday by phone, Witkoff said, “This is something fake, for sure,” but declined to comment further.
Witkoff donated more than $2 million to Trump’s political action committees, according to a 2021 Pro Publica story.
When Mohammed Bone Saw’s beneficiaries go Ugh, too gross for our brand… for some reason, I was reminded of a certain ‘Irish poem‘.
SLATER SCOOP: Donald Trump fundraiser was being planned at next week’s F1 race in Miami, I’ve learned.
The Shell Bay Club asked members for $250,000 to be in their suite hosted by Trump supporter Steve Witkoff.
Miami Grand Prix sent a cease and desist letter after finding out. pic.twitter.com/7Z6bO4fvoF
— Andy Slater (@AndySlater) April 26, 2024
SpaceUnit
Obviously, the Supreme Court will want to weigh in on this.
Chet Murthy
Over and over, the arbiters of cultural power in our society seem to be rejecting TFG and all who ride in him. It’s sometimes difficult to remember that the arbiters of real power, of economic power, have wholeheartedly embraced him. Sigh.
mrmoshpotato
@Chet Murthy: The greedy bastards love their tax cuts.
lowtechcyclist
Hadn’t heard that Irish poem before! Worth clicking through.
Baud
Seriously?
NotMax
@Space Unit
Absolute baboonity.
//
NotMax
@Baud
VIP entrance on Bankman-Fried Lane.
//
Tony Jay
@Baud:
When you’ve lost Big Crypto…. well, it depends on what you were looking for, but it’s hardly ever good.
SpaceUnit
@NotMax:
Baboonity is a word for our times.
Unfortunately.
Betty Cracker
Miami is as overrun with crypto-grifters as the former Twitter platform is, only in Miami, the grifters hold real power in meat space, so you can’t just close an app to shut them up. It’s not surprising, given the state’s legendarily corrupt hustle culture, which was a thing long before Al Gore invented the internet.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I’m starting to think he shouldn’t have done that.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Isn’t it the mayor who is hip deep in that pond of futile wishes?
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: Yep, that would be corrupt meathead Francis Suarez, who ran in the GOP presidential primary for about 10 minutes last year. I’m convinced that short-lived run was somehow connected to a crypto scam.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Lenny Bruce on Miami in the 60s.
::)
NotMax
@NotMax
Also came across this while toddling ’round the intertoobz.
“Miami is where neon goes to die.”
– Lenny Bruce
;)
Patricia Kayden
@lowtechcyclist: That poem is perfect!!
raven
Texas and Oklahoma are joining the SEC July 1st and Georgia plays at Austin the weekend of the F-1 race there. They estimate 400,000 people for the race and there are many sad Dawgs because there are no rooms anywhere NEAR Austin!!
NotMax
@raven
Step-niece just recently moved to Austin for her job. Somehow doubt she has enough room for visitors to pitch a sleeping bag, though.
sdhays
@Baud: You captured my reaction when I read that. Too perfect.
Ken
Nor had I. Almost as much fun as this version of a traditional Irish tune, which someone linked in the comments yesterday.
(Whadda ya mean, it’s not? The credits clearly say “Irish folk song.”)
waspuppet
On top of everything else, they are SO lazy.
Ken
@Baud: @sdhays: You have to remember the crypto companies were awash in money, or at least their balance sheets said so, and were buying stuff like naming rights to gain respectability. The now-bankrupt (and it turns out always-criminal) FTX had a deal for an arena in Miami.
It may be a little unfair to single out crypto, as the “Stadium Curse” has struck often, as google will confirm. Airlines seem particularly vulnerable.
Elizabelle
@Ken: The Baltimore Ravens were playing in some stadium whose name had outlasted the corporation. Mercifully, I forget what.
I am sick of Fedex Field and E*Trade Arena and all that crap. Enough.
Attempted Chemistry
“the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix suite license agreement”
You cannot convince me that this phrase isn’t AI-generated.
thruppence
@Elizabelle: If your brand lasts long enough it becomes a cherished tradition. Isn’t Wrigley Field named after a beloved chewing gum?
opiejeanne
@thruppence: Pretty sure old man Wrigley owned that stadium, among other things, including a big chunk of Catalina Island..
frosty
@Elizabelle: The Ravens are in M&T Bank Stadium, and the bank is still with us. They seem stable. I hope so, because it’s my bank.
RaflW
@Elizabelle: Minute Maid Park has always been a head scratcher. In south Florida, sure. But Houston squeezes oil barrels, not oranges.
RaflW
@thruppence: Extremely tangential tidbit: my partner’s grandpa, a Milwaukee Italian plumber, installed the gold bathroom fixtures in Wrigley’s Geneva Lake mansion.
(Pedant note: the town is Lake Geneva, the lake itself is the reverse moniker.)
Gvg
@RaflW: Texas is a citrus producer too. Not huge, but it is. Also Louisiana and Arizona.
Uncle Cosmo
@lowtechcyclist: New to me as well, but reminiscent of another (too-wordy-by-miles) pleasantry:
Tip the veal and try your waitress, I’ll be here
all weekfor the foreseeable future… ;^ppthomas745
Funniest sentence ever! “……violates the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix suite license agreement.”
Translation: we will not allow another grifter to muscle in on our previously established grift. We have already paid off too many F1 officials for us to have this race, and you hoovering up the fat cats we need to pay our own bills is limiting our cash flow. Please Stop!
Dan B
@opiejeanne: My cousin worked for Mr. Wiggly
Wiggly was the moniker bestowed upon him by employees.
RepubAnon
@pthomas745: Yes, anything mentioning crypto and honoring rules in the same sentence is laughable.
Steeplejack
@RaflW:
From MLB.com: “The Minute Maid Company is an operating unit of the Coca-Cola Company and the flagship of its worldwide fruit beverage business. The Minute Maid Company has been headquartered in Houston since 1967.”
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
I’m pretty sure you are correct.
tokyokie
@Steeplejack: And don’t forget, when the the stadium first opened, it was “Enron Field.”