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The general manager of the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster claims a bad health inspection was politically motivated.
An inspector from the Somerset County Department of Health gave the private New Jersey club a 32 out of 100 health score on May 6 — the lowest in the county, which includes about 115 retail food establishments.
This inspection yielded a C rating, citing 18 violations, including the improper separation of raw meats from ready-to-eat foods, and identified contamination risks.
The on-site inspector deemed the club’s operations conditionally satisfactory and classified the food establishment as a Risk Level 4 facility.
“[The person in charge] fails to demonstrate knowledge of food safety,” the inspector noted in the report, which can be publicly viewed online.
In response, the club’s general manager, David Schutzenhofer, told The Hill in a statement on Thursday, “Never before have we witnessed such visceral hostility from the health department. This is clearly nothing more than a politically motivated attack.”
“We operate one of the most immaculate golf facilities in the country, and we take immense pride in our standards of cleanliness, safety, and hospitality,” he said.
The Independent has contacted representatives for the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster and the Somerset County Department of Health for comment.
Forbes was the first to report on the less-than-glowing inspection in an article published on Wednesday.
About three hours after the article’s release, an inspector conducted a reinspection at Trump’s Bedminster club, despite NJ rules requiring surprise visits, Forbes reports.
The club received a B grade with a score of 86, the lowest possible for that rating, and was cited for six violations, including two critical ones. Issues included improperly chilled milk and creamers, weak sanitizer levels, and mops stored in buckets instead of being air-dried.
Michael McCarty, Somerset County’s deputy health director, said that reinspections are routine and typically occur within two to four weeks of the initial visit, according to USA Today.
The president owns the Bedminster golf club through a business network and the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, which allows him to earn income, as he did during his first term.
He spent over 100 days there during his office tenure. New Jersey law requires all food establishments, including private golf clubs, to undergo annual inspections.
Amid his feud with Elon Musk, Trump has decamped to Bedminster for the weekend.
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