Celebrity chef José Andrés shared a message after the presidential election, saying that the country “will be fine.”
“We had republican and democrat presidents since I arrived 32 years ago…we will be fine USA will be fine,” Andrés told Washingtonian magazine in a text.
Andrés, the famed restaurateur and founder of the emergency food relief nonprofit World Central Kitchen, downplayed President-elect Trump’s pledges to carry out mass deportations of immigrants, arguing that he “would not be able” to deport people because he “will need them to build the country and run it.”
He added that many migrants work for Trump’s various hotels and businesses. In 2015, Andrés pulled out of plans to open a restaurant at the Trump hotel in Washington, D.C., after Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants.
A day before the election, Andrés challenged Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) to a possible race for his seat in Congress.
“I will retire and run for your seat,” Andrés said on the social platform X, calling the Maryland Republican a “disgrace” and arguing the state deserves better.
Andrés told Washingtonian magazine Wednesday that he isn’t running for office in Maryland yet.
“Would be for Senator,” he texted with a laughing emoji.
Andrés previously told the outlet in 2018 that he believes the country needs people on the right and the left who have “respect and understanding.”
“If I don’t see things get better in terms of understanding, maybe we need a chef in the capital that can bring everybody to the table and start having these kinds of honorable conversations,” he said. “We know that at a table, good things happen.”
