Who is Lady Gaga's father Joseph Germanotta? Papa Gaga sparks furor after deleting cryptic tweets for Trump
Lady Gaga had publicly encouraged her Little Monsters to vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 US Elections. Her disdain for Donald Trump is well-known and neither has POTUS refrained from talking about the singer on multiple occasions.
Only days after Gaga was called an “anti-fracking activist” in a press release by the Trump campaign, her father Joseph Germanotta, who is apparently a Trump supporter, shared a few cryptic tweets about the president’s reelections and deleted them later. According to the Daily Beast, The first read “@realdonaldtrump 2020.” And the second, “You may have noticed my political and spiritual beliefs are different. liberty and freedom of choice would not be political,” he wrote.
While Germanotta’s intentions with the tweets are unknown, he has been an open supporter of Trump. Reportedly, since last year, he has donated thousands to the National Republican Congressional Committee, WinRed and “Trump Himself”.
What does Joseph Germanotta do?
Gaga’s father was the first to introduce Wi-Fi to hotel chains. He is said to be from New Jersey and finished his schooling at Michigan State University. Currently, he’s the president of Guest Wi-Fi, one of the largest providers of wifi to the hospitality industry. He also co-owns a restaurant with Gaga -- Joanne Trattoria was opened in 2012 near Lincoln Center.
Germanotta was in the news in February for allegedly refusing to pay more than $260,000 in rent for fees for his Art Bird & Whiskey Bar in Grand Central Terminal, citing “dirty bathrooms, a rodent infestation, and too many homeless people” as the reason. Talking about the loss his business had endured he told CNN, “ Some days, there are more homeless people down there than there is foot traffic in the early morning. The homeless guys are in there washing their hair in the sink. Imagine you’re a tourist and you walk in there and see that. You’d leave.”
Germanotta is said to have set up a GoFundMe to secure funds to pay the employees at Joanne Trattoria. He reportedly asked fans to help his raise $50,000 amid Covid-19 closures. The campaign claimed that nearly 30 workers had been laid off due to the pandemic. However, it was met with severe criticism and the page was soon shut down after collecting only $541.
Meanwhile, a source told TMZ that neither Gaga nor her mother was "aware" of the page. They said the “idea would have been shot down before he even finished bringing it up.”
“It was a stupid, embarrassing mistake. He saw other people getting into the spirit of giving and generosity and somehow thought that applied here. It had more to do with the spirit than a belief that he needed or deserved financial help to pass on to his employees. He was acting on impulse,” another source stated.