INTERVIEW – TIM CARMAN – food reporter at The Washington Post @timcarman

TOPIC: Could the Trump hotel lose its liquor license because of the president’s character? (Washington Post) — Last week, an Advisory Neighborhood Commission voted unanimously to support a petition that seeks to revoke the Trump International Hotel’s liquor license on the grounds that its owner — you know, the president of the United States — is not of “good character.” The ANC is not even the one where the luxury hotel is located. During its July 11 meeting, the commissioners of ANC 4C — which represents Petworth, Columbia Heights and other neighborhoods north of Trump’s downtown property — voted 8 to 0 to support a complaint that looks to strip the hotel of its liquor license. In June, a group of religious and judicial leaders petitioned the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to force the Trump hotel to justify why it should keep its alcohol permit when D.C. law states that license applicants must be of “good character and generally fit for the responsibilities of licensure.” “It is our considered view that Donald Trump, the true and actual owner of the Trump International Hotel, is not a person of good character, doesn’t meet the D.C. Code … requirements and therefore the license should be revoked,” ANC 4C chairman, Bennett Hilley, and vice chair, Charlotte Nugent, wrote in a letter to the director of the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration. (The emphasis, incidentally, was the authors’.) Zach Teutsch introduced the resolution to his fellow ANC 4C commissioners. He says that it’s “correct and very important” that D.C. law requires liquor license applicants to be of good character. “And this is a way to see how serious we are about it as a community,” he adds. (Read more at The Washington Post.)