Celebrity chef Jose Andres has blasted Donald Trump for repeatedly lying about many D.C. restaurants being closed due to crime, describing the president as a “confused” man who never goes out to dine.
In a scathing rebuke on X, the Spanish-American chef, humanitarian, and TV personality also warned that while restaurants were still thriving in the nation’s capital, many would end up closing because the sight of troops on the streets was making citizens and immigrants afraid to go out.
“Mr. President @realdonaldtrump I understand why you are confused,” Andres said.
“All your time in DC you haven’t eaten ONCE outside the White House or your own hotel. I’ve lived here for 33 years, and it’s a flat out lie that half the restaurants have closed because of safety.
“But restaurants will close because you have troops with guns and federal agents harassing people...making people afraid to go out.”
The comments come as Trump’s crime crackdown enters its third week, with thousands of National Guards who have been deployed to Washington, D.C. now authorized to patrol the city with firearms.
Speaking at the White House during a meandering cabinet meeting, Trump also suggested D.C should have the death penalty for murder, despite the city not having capital punishment, and that many Americans wanted a dictatorship.
“The line is that I’m a dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of people say, ‘you know, if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator,” Trump said.
But it’s the President’s insistence that restaurants in D.C. were mostly empty until his federal takeover that has irked local residents and business owners, who say the false claim is designed to manufacture a crisis for Trump to exert his authority over the capital.
While figures suggest a slowdown over the past year, some argue that the presence of law enforcement agents, particularly armed troops and ICE agents, was intimidating people.
Since August 7, federal officials have arrested more than 300 people in DC without legal immigration status.
But D.C. restaurateurs say some of their own workers are afraid to go out, even if they have a work permit, because they are worried about being racially profiled or targeted.
One American citizen at a bar in Adams Morgan told The Daily Beast last weekend that she debated staying home because of the sight of army vehicles on the streets.
“I’m from Colombia,” she said. “That sh-t’s triggering.”
Andres’ D.C. restaurants include downtown favorite Zaytinya, Jalaeo in Penn Quarter and The Bazaar in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
He warned that cities and towns “need policies that allow small business to thrive and all people including immigrants to live and work with dignity.”
“People shouldn’t be afraid of their government… government should have respect for its people, not terrorize them," he said.
Trump, however, insists his crackdown is working, citing figures showing a drop in most offenses and 12 days without a homicide in Washington.
“People are telling me that they are going out to dinner now,” he said.
“I have a lot of friends who are going out all the time now in D.C... Restaurants are opening again. A lot of them closed because nobody wanted to go in to a restaurant, no one wanted to get to a restaurant or sit in a restaurant. But you see a big difference now, don’t you?”
