Donald Trump has taken the gloves off in his feud with Univision.
The feud between the Republican presidential candidate and the Spanish-language TV network turned up a notch Friday when the real estate mogul sent a letter informing the media giant that its employees would not be welcome at his Miami golf club.
The letter, delivered to Univision CEO and President Randy Falco, informed him they could not use Trump National Doral Resort and Golf Club, which is adjacent to Univision’s Miami offices, according to Politico.
“Please be advised that under no circumstances is any officer or representative of Univision allowed to use Trump National Doral, Miami—its golf courses or any of its facilities,” Trump’s letter began. “Also, please immediately stop work and close the gate which is being constructed between our respective properties. If this is not done within one week, we will close it.”
He also took a shot at Falco’s management style.
“Also, it’s too bad you didn’t have the courage to call me yourself instead of delegating the task to Beau,” he wrote.
He added a postscript for an extra tweak.
“Please congratulate your Mexican Government officials for having made such outstanding trade deals with the United States,” it read. “However, inform them that should I become President, those days are over. We are bringing jobs back to the U.S. Also, a meaningful border will be immediately created, not the laughingstock that currently exists.”
Univision has decided not to push the issue. It sent a notice to its employees saying, “As part of this decision, [Univision Communications Inc.] employees should not stay at Trump properties while on company business or hold events/activities there.”
The brouhaha between Trump and Univision got off the ground Thursday when the network informed Trump it would no longer air the Miss Universe contest, a move prompted by what it called “insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants” that Trump made during his address announcing his presidential bid.
The Miss Universe Organization is jointly owned by Trump and NBC-Universal.
Trump fired back with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, alleging defamation and breach of an “iron-clad” $13.5 million contract.
Alberto Ciurana, Univision’s president of programming, ratcheted the feud into the stratosphere when he posted on his Instagram account a split image comparing Trump to Dylann Roof, the white supremacist accused of murdering nine people in Charleston, South Carolina.
Ciurana later deleted the photo after receiving flak, but by that time the damage was done — it was being displayed everywhere on the Internet.
Trump accused Univision of bending to pressure “put on them by various sources in Mexico” during an interview with On Media Blog on Thursday.
“The Mexican government is putting pressure on Univision to get me to stop exposing the weaknesses the U.S. has at the Southern border,” he said during the interview, citing his claims that U.S. leaders were “incompetent” on trade with Mexico, allowing the country to take advantage of the U.S., and that the Southern border “is a sieve” that “illegals are pouring through.”
“The government of Mexico and the lobbyists and the special interests have put tremendous pressure on Univision, a company that is very subservient to Mexico, to get Trump to stop exposing the terrible situation at the border and the terrible trade deals that are being made by the United States to the benefit of Mexico,” he said. “I will not be party to that, because my love of the country is too great to allow this to happen.”