BEDFORD, N.Y. — A tent on Donald Trump’s estate in suburban New York City was dismantled Wednesday, and Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy apparently will not be showing up there at all.
The dismantling came just after Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano said the Secret Service had told him Gadhafi would be coming to Trump’s property.
Spano’s office later said the Secret Service reported he would not visit Bedford, after all — something “subject to change.”
The Secret Service did not return a phone call.
Trump had been criticized for renting space for Gadhafi, and his organization issued a statement saying, “We have requested that the tenant occupying the property in Bedford, New York, remove the tent that was erected. They have complied with this request.”
As the tent came down, leather couches and chairs were uncovered. Workers packed up the goods.
The town of Bedford had ordered the dismantling, claiming the tent violated code because people were sleeping in it. Town attorney Joel Sachs had threatened criminal action, but he said Trump had asked him to give him until the end of business Wednesday.
The Trump Organization said Tuesday that Khadafy would not be coming to the property and insisted that Trump had not rented property to him. But it said part of the estate “was leased on a short-term basis to Middle Eastern partners, who may or may not have a relationship to Mr. Khadafy.”
As word got out Tuesday, local officials quickly objected to Khadafy’s anticipated presence.
Khadafy addressed the General Assembly on Wednesday. His appearance drew demonstrators protesting Scotland’s recent release of Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people.
Khadafy had wanted to pitch a tent at Libya’s 5-acre estate in Englewood, N.J., and live and entertain there during the UN assembly. But local opposition turned him away.
Later, the Libyan government asked to use Manhattan’s Central Park for a tent, but the request was denied.
U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey said Khadafy had shown a lack of remorse for the bombing and was “unwelcome throughout the New York area.”