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The Grove Owner Rick Caruso Says He'd Happily Ban Donald Trump
(Photo by Jeff Hensley via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
If Donald Trump wants to ride a trolley or sip tea at the American Girl Cafe, he'll just have to do it somewhere that's not The Grove. Grove owner Rick Caruso told a TMZ employee that he'd happily ban fellow billionaire and GOP candidate Donald Trump from his open-air mall. Caruso said, "I think if you want to be in public office, you've got to be compassionate, you got to be a gentleman, you've got to be professional, you gotta care about people. I just don't see him being any of that. I think he's actually a pretty angry human being, so I'm not into that."
Caruso isn't a liberal. He supported John Kasich back before the nightmare circus that is this year's election kicked into high gear, and generally identifies as a Republican. He told The Hollywood Reporter in April of 2016 that he thought Trump would be a "bad candidate," and was optimistic about Kasich.
Nobody at the Kasich camp thinks we’re going to win a bunch of states. It’s going to happen at the convention floor. Trump’s not going to come to the convention with the magic number, the delegates will be focused on picking a nominee who can win, and there’s no poll that says he can beat Clinton in a general election.
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Hard to believe a world in which Trump had no chance of being the GOP nominee was only a mere seven months ago.
Caruso said The Grove doesn't exactly have a list of blacklisted individuals, but certain people have been banned before. The Grove banned boxer Manny Pacquiao in 2012 after Pacquaio made anti-gay remarks, then reversed the ban when they came to believe that the he had been quoted incorrectly. Then, the Grove banned him again after Pacquiao said that animals are better than people because they don't engage in homosexual behavior (which isn't true). "If we approve [of] male on male, female on female, then man is worse than animals," Pacquiao said. Pacquiao also posted a verse from the Bible indicating that gays should be put to death on his Instagram.
At that point, Caruso said that many LGBT folks were customers at the Grove, and that they should be able to feel comfortable there.
"Manny Pacquiao is no longer welcome," he said.
In addition to his recent comments on Trump, Caruso said he would be willing to rescind the ban on Pacquiao if he were to change his ways.
[h/t Curbed LA]
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