By the 45th US President himself.
Remember those good old One Direction days? Well, we’re sure President Donald Trump does too. Niall Horan revealed that when the band was still back together, they stayed at one of his New York hotels and were essentially forced to leave by the current US president - all because they wouldn’t take some photographs.
During an interview with The Late Late Show with James Corden, James Corden asked, ‘You had an issue with Trump. Is this true, didn’t he once kick One Direction out of a hotel in New York?’
Niall’s fellow interviewees Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom instantly perked up, both turning to look at him incredulously. Niall took it in stride, explaining that he had stayed in the Central Park property as it was close to their performance venue.
The ex-Directioner joked, ‘He’s not the first hotelier to kick us out.’
He then continued, ‘We were performing in Madison Square Garden and we basically said we were doing no meet and greets because it was such a big show. It was the biggest show of our career. And he said, ‘Could you take a photo with my lawyer’s daughter?’ And we were like, ‘Is she gonna come down and make a big hullabaloo?’ And we were like, ‘No, no, [the show is] on lockdown.’’
Given that One Direction fans are notoriously determined and passionate, we bet that if even the whisper of their hotel address had come out - it would have made life very difficult for the boys. In fact, they’ve had to deal with their fanbase going as far as to brave a poisonous snake enclosure - despite them shouting from the balcony for them to stay away as their lives were at stake.
The Trump trouble began brewing when Donald realised that they weren’t going to not just do the photograph, they weren’t going to be promoting his hotel at all. So he put the pressure on them.
Niall said, ‘[Donald Trump] said, ‘You’re not allowed to use the garage door. You’re going to have to stand on the front steps and take photos and basically promote the hotel.’
So the choice became: would the boys sacrifice their privacy and valuable resting time before one of the biggest gigs of their career, or give into Trump’s media play for a night at his hotel? I mean, it’s no surprise that it was a no-brainer.
‘We just left,’ Niall finished.
Even Orlando Bloom looked flabbergasted, sighing out loud. He said incredulously, ‘Wow. So you wouldn’t take a photo with his lawyer’s daughter, so you were going to have to take photos for the rest of your life in front of his hotel?’
‘Exactly,’ Niall said.
James piped up, ‘I’m starting to think he’s a bad guy.’
Well, yikes. We’d like to say the story surprises us, but nothing surprises us much anymore when it comes to The Apprentice star now.
Niall is currently trekking round the world solo on his Flicker World Tour, after scooping up an award for Favourite Breakout Artist for his album Flicker over his former bandmate Zayn Malik.
