Donald Trump ended his first day as president Monday by posting a sneering message on his Truth Social platform, boasting how his team was hunting down more than 1,000 Biden appointees to give them a message, in the words of his reality TV catchphrase: “You’re fired!”
One of those Biden White House appointees is José Andrés, the revered Spanish-American chef who founded the nonprofit World Central Kitchen and who Biden appointed to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, the Daily Beast reported. Trump’s “firing” of Andres comes as the chef’s World Central Kitchen has been in Los Angeles for nearly the past two weeks, serving more than 200,000 meals to first responders and families affected by the devastating Palisades and Eaton wildfires.
Despite the humanitarian’s efforts on behalf of people in this major American city, the new president appeared to hurl particular scorn at him, as well as three others, given that he called these appointees out by name in his Truth Social post, the Daily Beast also said.
The others are Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who sat on the National Infrastructure Advisory Council; Brian Hook, a diplomat and professor who served as a trustee of the Wilson Center for Scholars; and Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor who served on the President’s export council.
“Our first day in the White House is not over yet!” Trump declared on Truth Social. He said the Biden appointees were being dismissed because they “are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again.”
While Andres certainly has more pressing things to worry about than Trump’s tirade, he responded to the president’s late-night post by saying on X that he had already resigned from his position on the council.
“I submitted my resignation last week…my 2 year term was already up,” Andres wrote. He also said: “I hope @realdonaldtrump exercises his presidential authority so the council can continue to advocate for fitness and good health for all Americans. These are bipartisan issues…nonpartisan issues. 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.”
Andres’s subsequent social media posts show that he went back to focus on World Central Kitchen’s relief efforts in Los Angeles. His staff and employees have been working to bring meals from restaurants and food truck partners to thousands of people impacted by the wildfires. Since 2010, World Central Kitchen has helped with frontline disaster relief in Paradise, California, Gaza, Ukraine and countries all over the world.
Andres, though, has a famously stormy relationship with Trump, according to the Daily Beast. Andrés pulled out of opening a restaurant at Trump’s former Trump International Hotel in Washington DC after the president made inflammatory remarks about Mexicans, NPR reported. A two-year legal battle was eventually settled, but the bad blood clearly remained between the chef and Trump.