Trump on race
PBS has a useful compilation of Trump on race. There are a few wild cards but mostly it’s what you’d expect…and there’s a lot of it.
To understand this side of the president, especially after his remarks about the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, we combed the archives (and Internet) for more of Trump’s words and actions on race. We found nearly 100 critical moments.
1973
Discrimination charge. Donald and Fred Trump are accused of violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against potential minority renters. They insist they are innocent and fight the sweeping charges.
1975
DOJ settlement. The Trumps settle with the Department of Justice over housing discrimination charges, agreeing to meet certain standards while not admitting any wrongdoing.
1978
Renewed discrimination charge. The Department of Justice accuses the Trumps of continuing to discriminate in spite of their settlement.
1983
Report: disproportionately white tenants. The New York Times reports that two Trump properties have populations that are 95 percent white.
1989
Central Park Five Ads. After five young men of color — known as The Central Park Five — are arrested for a brutal attack on a jogger, Donald Trump buys full-page newspaper ads stressing law and order and urging return of the the death penalty. He writes that white, black, Hispanic and Asian families have lost a sense of security in their neighborhoods. (The five men, who[m] Trump called “crazed misfits,” were exonerated 13 years later.)
…
1993
“They don’t look like Indians to me,” Trump says during a Congressional hearing when talking about Native American casino officials, accusing them of working with organized crime. He adds that political correctness have given Native American status to some people who don’t “look like Indians.”
But then one of the wild cards.
1995
Opens racially-inclusive club. Trump turns his Mar-a-Lago resort into a private club open to Jews, African-Americans and all races, breaking with many other local elite clubs in Palm Beach, Florida.
Jumping to 2011.
FEB. 10, 2011
First publicly doubts Obama. Trump tells conservative CPAC that President Barack Obama’s classmates never saw him at school. Politifact rated this statement “pants on fire.”
MARCH 23, 2011
Birtherism begins. Trump goes on “The View,” says that President Obama must show his birth certificate.
APRIL 21, 2011
Questions Obama’s place at Harvard. In an interview with the Associated Press, Trump questions how President Obama got into Columbia and Harvard. Later, he tells reporters Obama should “get off the basketball court.”
That stupid illiterate pig of a man questioned how Obama got into Columbia and Harvard.
APRIL 24, 2013
Calls Jon Stewart by his Jewish birth name. Trump tweets that he’s smarter than “Jonathan Leibowitz – I mean Jon Stewart …”
As if Stewart were secretive about being Jewish.
The most recent item:
AUG. 22, 2017
“I love all the people” and Confederate statues are “our heritage.” Speaking at a rally in Phoenix, Trump lashed out at coverage of his remarks about Charlottesville, Virginia, saying he loves “all the people of our country” and repeating that “racism is evil.” He called the white nationalist driver who killed a protester in Charlottesville “a murderer.” Minutes later, Trump defended Confederate statues, charging that those who want to remove them “are trying to take our history and our heritage away.”
Wait a second… this seems to imply that it is legal for clubs to only admit white people. Is that truly the case??
Holms, I don’t know how legal it is, but if no one enforces it, then it is de facto legal. In the town where I grew up, the local newspaper editor was building a new golf club. The old one, you see, had wanted to host the US Open, and that meant they could no longer be exclusive. They had to allow women and minorities to use the course. So of course this regressive rich white man was forced to open a club that kept out those elements that don’t belong on a golf course – in short, a club in which white men could golf happily without ever seeing anyone who was not a white male, unless that someone was waiting on them.
This was advertised and promoted locally. Legal? I don’t know. Happening in reality? Of course it is.
When the Boy Scouts were forced to admit girls, they squawked and squealed like they were being killed, and demanded they be allowed to join the Girl Scouts. As far as I know, the Girl Scouts had never been exclusive, but I’ve never known of any male who joined (at least where I was; there probably are some out there).