for anyone who predicted at the infancy of donald j. trump <u+2019>s presidential bid <u+2014> so many mean, vengeful, condemning, deranged remarks ago <u+2014> that the unhinged nature his candidacy revealed would surely serve his business interests poorly, the past few weeks have delivered gratifying confirmation. residents of a row of trump buildings on riverside boulevard on the upper west side are rallying to have the republican nominee<u+2019>s name expunged from the facades. simultaneously, protests have mounted against the united states golf association<u+2019>s plan to hold the united states women<u+2019>s open next year at a trump course in new jersey, where it was scheduled four years ago, on the theory that holding it there would be like celebrating earth day in a pesticide factory. jeffrey sammons , a professor of history at new york university, has emerged as a particularly prescient figure in this battle. in june, he resigned from the golf association<u+2019>s museum and library committee and its african-american golf archive, arguing that as long as its association with mr. trump continued, the u.s.g.a. <u+2014> the governing body for the sport <u+2014> could no longer be regarded as a suitable repository for the history of black golfers. in the letter terminating his relationship with the organization, mr. sammons reminded administrators that he had been warning them about the organization<u+2019>s affiliation with mr. trump for five years. the u.s.g.a., which would be choosing decency over pragmatism <u+2014> it faces significant financial losses and presumably a lawsuit if it moves the women<u+2019>s open elsewhere <u+2014> has said nothing publicly about the controversy beyond the anodyne and oblivious statement it released last spring, proclaiming that it would focus on <u+201c>conducting an excellent championship for the players, the spectators, the fans and the volunteers.<u+201d> an organization that has sought to diversify and make more welcoming a sport long tainted by elitism is now in the strange position of having to hope there are enough players, spectators, fans and volunteers capable of accommodating mr. trump<u+2019>s degrading prejudices for an <u+201c>excellent championship<u+201d> to take place. at the same time, the u.s.g.a. has planned no other tournaments on trump courses through 2026. this has not kept the trump organization from petitioning new york city to expand its role at trump golf links at ferry point , the municipal course that it manages in the bronx, in part on the basis that the course could then more easily attract the united states open or other prominent tournaments. in a letter sent this month to the city<u+2019>s parks commissioner, mitchell j. silver, eric trump proposed that his family<u+2019>s company redesign the 17th and 18th holes of the course and take over the development of an adjacent strip of waterfront into a small park the city had planned to construct itself. <u+201c>i know you will agree that this course represents perhaps the most successful public-private partnership in the history of the city,<u+201d> mr. trump wrote, a delusion that ignores the fact that his father<u+2019>s litany of offenses over the past year has led the administration of mayor bill de blasio, a democrat, to explore the possibility of getting out of its contracts with the trump organization at ferry point, wollman rink and other sites altogether. deputy mayor alicia glen wrote back to him several days later, essentially telling him no, and adding that a previous request to extend the trumps<u+2019> contract would also be denied. while the city<u+2019>s investigation into extricating itself from its contracts with trump concluded that it could not do so without violating the first amendment, nels on tebbe , a professor at brooklyn law school, and cory brettschneider , a political scientist at brown university, have advanced a theory of <u+201c>mixed speech<u+201d> that could be relevant to the future of ferry point. taking as an example license plates issued by states that might contain personal and potentially ugly sentiments, they have argued that courts should balance the private right to free speech with the government<u+2019>s interest in conveying its own messages, known as the government speech doctrine. <u+201c>if you think of the golf course as government speech,<u+201d> professor tebbe said, referring to the fact that the course sits on public land, but bears the name trump, <u+201c>then the city doesn<u+2019>t have to associate itself with the trump name and everything it stands for; it could say that the trump name has come to stand for something it doesn<u+2019>t want to communicate.<u+201d> under the government speech doctrine, the city could feasibly seek to take down the trump signage without vacating its contract. even if that were to take place, the city would still not be free of its problems at ferry point. residents of the neighboring area in the bronx, among them cricket players from a wide range of countries, are upset that the park adjacent to the golf course, known as ferry point west, remains a wreck of parched grass, filth and trash-filled parking spaces while the trump facility next to it glistens. wouldn<u+2019>t a cricket stadium, or at least well-kept fields, absent the trump name, have served the immigrant population of the bronx more effectively? martin prince, the chairman of community board 10 , which includes ferry point, told me many residents don<u+2019>t care about the waterfront strip that the city and the trump organization are squabbling over, and see it as nothing more than a walkway. they want improvements to the enormous park that they actually use. <u+201c>people,<u+201d> mr. prince said, <u+201c>are going to say, <u+2018>what<u+2019>s coming to us?<u+2019><u+201d> email bigcity@nytimes.com a version of this article appears in print on october 30, 2016, on page mb1 of the new york edition with the headline: escaping  a trump trap  . order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
blasting out of a trump trap
ginia bellafante