Celebrity chef José Andrés on Monday offered a free drink at any of his Washington, D.C.-area restaurants to employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) amid an ongoing dispute over who is in charge of the agency.
Former CPFB Director Richard Cordray resigned Friday night, but first tapped Leandra English to serve as acting director.
President Trump, however, nominated Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to be the CFPB’s acting director, claiming he had the power to do so under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998.
English sued Trump and Mulvaney in federal court on Sunday night to block Mulvaney, who has previously called the agency “a sick, sad joke” with no real reason to exist.
Andrés, who has engaged in legal battle with Trump himself in the past, offered a free beverage to those at the CFPB who may not know who’s in charge.
The dispute over who sits in the director’s chair led to an unorthodox day at the CFPB, where Mulvaney showed up to the office with donuts and told employees to ignore directives from English.
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English, meanwhile, sent an email to employees and addressed herself as “acting director.”
Andrés, a Spanish immigrant who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2013, has been a staunch critic of Trump. He canceled his planned restaurant in Trump’s D.C. hotel after Trump announced his candidacy with a speech that many found racist against Hispanics.
Andrés’s nonprofit organization, World Central Kitchen, has served hundreds of thousands of meals to those on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands recovering from Hurricane Maria.
He has faulted the federal government for its response to the storm, calling the Federal Emergency Management Agency “inefficient” in the face of the damage.
Andrés is the force behind multiple D.C. eateries, including Fish, Oyamel, Minibar and Zaytinya.