One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
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.
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.
Sponsored message
"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]
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
