Biden appointed the celebrated chef to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition in 2022
In addition to a slew of first-day executive orders, the newly inaugurated President Trump announced in a Truth Social post that he’s officially dismissed the chef José Andrés from his role in the previous administration.
President Biden had appointed Andrés — who is behind restaurants like Zaytinya as well as the food relief organization World Central Kitchen — to help lead the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition (PCSFN) in 2022. Andrés served as co-chair along with basketball player Elena Delle Donne. Donne was not mentioned in Trump’s post, but he also publicly dismissed Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars, and Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President’s Export Council. Andrés and the three others named “are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again,” Trump wrote.
But not so fast, the chef retorted a little over six hours later: “I submitted my resignation last week ... my 2 year term was already up,” Andrés wrote on X. That term, he wrote, included a partnership between the White House and major sports leagues to promote physical activity and nutrition programming for kids. Earlier this month, President Biden had also awarded Andrés with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his humanitarian work.
Famous figures often hold brief terms on the PCSFN. During President Trump’s first term in office, he appointed volleyball player Misty May-Treanor, football player Herschel Walker, and baseball player Mariano Rivera as co-chairs for a two-year term.
That Andrés wouldn’t be part of the Trump administration isn’t at all surprising: The chef has long been an ardent critic of the president. Their acrimonious public relationship goes back to 2015, when Andrés pulled out of a restaurant deal with Trump’s Washington, D.C. hotel after his derogatory comments regarding Mexican immigrants and crime. (This led to a two-year lawsuit.) Since then, he’s frequently been critical of President Trump. In 2017, he posted on X: “Thank you @realDonaldTrump for showing me everyday that we did the right thing pulling out of your hotel...#smartbusinessdecision.”
Andrés’s parting words are more diplomatic than his old tweets, however. Staying true to his mission statement of “bringing people together through the power of food,” the chef urged the president to work toward unity: “May God give you the wisdom, Mr. President, to put politics and name calling aside ... and instead lift up the everyday people working to bring America together. Let’s build longer tables...”
from Eater - All https://ift.tt/MAne2JG
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