Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019
Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019
1973: The US Department of Justice — under the Nixon administration, out of all administrations —
sued the Trump Management Corporation for violating the Fair Housing Act. Federal officials found
evidence that Trump had refused to rent to black tenants and lied to black applicants about whether apartments were available, among other accusations.
1980s: Kip Brown, a former employee at Trump’s Castle, accused another one of Trump’s businesses of discrimination. “When Donald and Ivana came to the casino, the bosses would order all the black people off the floor,” Brown
said.
1991: A
book by John O’Donnell, former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, quoted Trump’s criticism of a black accountant: “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. … I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks.
1992: The Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino
had to pay a $200,000 fine because it transferred black and women dealers off tables to accommodate a big-time gambler’s prejudices.
2000: In opposition to a casino proposed by the St. Regis Mohawk tribe, which he saw as a financial threat to his casinos in Atlantic City, Trump secretly ran a
series of ads suggesting the tribe had a “record of criminal activity [that] is well documented.”
2011: Trump played a
big role in pushing false rumors that Obama — the country’s first black president — was not born in the US. He even sent investigators to Hawaii to
look into Obama’s birth certificate. Obama later released his birth certificate, calling Trump a
”carnival barker.” (The
research has found a strong correlation between “birtherism,” as this conspiracy theory is called, and racism.) Trump has
reportedly continued pushing this conspiracy theory in private.
2011: While Trump suggested that Obama wasn’t born in the US, he also argued that maybe Obama wasn’t a good enough student to have gotten into Columbia or Harvard Law School, and demanded Obama release his university transcripts. Trump
claimed, “I heard he was a terrible student.