PrintIs Trump a racist?
It's next to impossible to turn on the TV and not see another story declaring with utmost certitude that President Trump is a racist.
Is he? You decide:
- For 14 years, NBC made Trump the host of its prime-time television series, The Apprentice, something the network would never have done had there been even a hint of racism in his past.
- Trump was a high-profile real estate developer in New York City, one of the most liberal jurisdictions in America. Had he been infected with racism, he would have faced insurmountable hurdles getting his projects approved.
- Before running for president, Trump donated $1.5 million to high-profile Democrat candidates, including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Andrew Cuomo, none of whom would have accepted a dime from him if there was a shred of doubt about his racial bona fides.
Only when Trump became the GOP presidential nominee did Democrats hurl racial hand grenades his way at every turn. Maybe they didn't know about the time he drove a stake in the heart of institutional racism in South Florida...
When Trump fought the racists
In 1985, 31 years before being elected president, Trump bought the 126-room, 62,500-sq-ft Mar-a-Lago estate, the magnificent Palm Beach, Florida seaside resort built by Post Cereals heiress Margaret Merriwether Post. The brash New York real estate developer was intent on turning his newly acquired property into a private club that would compete with other high-society clubs in the area, which barred blacks and Jews from membership.
When Trump, then 39, revealed that memberships at his proposed club would be offered without regard to race or religion, the Palm Beach town council imposed zoning restrictions to prevent him from turning Mar-a-Lago into a club. Sensing that the restrictions were intended to perpetuate the discriminatory practices of the Old South social order in Palm Beach, Trump went head-to-head with the town council.
As part of his strategy to bring long overdue social change to the upper echelon of Palm Beach society, he sent the city commissioners a copy of the Sidney Poitier movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, a film about upper-class racism. When the commissioners still wouldn't budge, Trump filed a $100-million lawsuit, and the rest is history.
Under Trump's ownership, Mar-a-Lago has been open from the beginning to anyone who could qualify, regardless of race or religion. Influenced in part by Trump's ground-breaking example, other clubs in the area slowly began doing away with discriminatory policies. Today, all high-society clubs in Palm Beach are open to blacks and Jews. Long before he ran for president, Donald Trump was dismantling racial barriers in South Florida, not something a racist would do.
Note: The narration above was condensed from this American Spectator article titled "When Trump Fought the Racists."
President Trump is fulfilling his promise to reach out to the black community
In 2018, President Trump signed a clemency plea for a black American grandmother who had served 20 years of a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense. Hollywood celebrity Kim Kardashian brought Alice Marie Johnson's plight to the attention of President Trump, who ordered her set free. "I felt like I was losing hope. Thank you, President Trump. I love you and I am going to make you proud that you gave me this second chance in life." See story and photo here. Not everyone was thrilled that Trump had set Johnson free. Democrat HBO host Bill Maher said he fears that "grateful black folks" like Alice Johnson will cause Trump to rise in the polls.
Citing racial injustice, President Trump posthumously pardoned black boxing legend Jack Johnson. In 1913, the first black heavyweight champion was convicted by an all-white jury for taking his white girlfriend across state lines for "immoral purposes." The conviction and imprisonment destroyed Johnson's boxing career. With Sylvester Stallone and former heavyweight champion Lenox Lewis at his side, President Trump signed the pardon in an Oval Office ceremony. Previous presidents, including George W. Bush and Barack Obama, rejected bipartisan requests to grant clemency to Johnson. See 47-sec. video here.
In 2018, President Trump signed a bill elevating the birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr. to full national park status. With the slain civil rights leader's niece, Alveda King, looking on, Trump signed the bill aboard Air Force One. The legislation gives the landmark attraction additional resources, including park rangers and funding for community improvements. Previously turned down by presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the long championed bill was sponsored by civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).
President Trump is considering pardoning Muhammad Ali. The former heavyweight boxing sensation was sentenced in 1970 to five years in prison after he was convicted of draft evasion. As a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, Ali refused to serve in the military. The prison sentence was overturned in 1971 in a unanimous Supreme Court decision that found that the Department of Justice had improperly told the draft board that Ali's stance wasn't motivated by his religious beliefs.
A month after taking office, President Trump signed an executive order that historically black colleges and universities will be a priority in his administration. As one of more than 100 black educators in attendance, Leonard Haynes, former executive director of the 40-year-old White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, said, "Oh man. I've been around for a long time and I've never seen as many black folks in the Oval Office." See photo here.
In January 2018, President Trump extended an olive branch to the NFL kneelers by asking them to send him the names of black Americans they feel were unfairly treated by the criminal justice system, promising to have his administration review such cases and take remedial action if warranted.
In May 2018, black NYPD detective Miosotis Familia, mother of two, was gunned down by a cop-hater. At a memorial service in the nation's capital, President Trump hugged, kissed, and held hands with Familia's 90-year-old mother. Would a racist ever do such a thing? Click here to see heartbreaking pictures of Familia's grieving mother embracing President Trump.
Democrats know that President Trump is not a racist. But because the "race card" has long been an effective way to incite racial hatred against Republican presidents, they continue to target him with racial invective. Unfortunately for them, the black electorate is awakening to the fact that they've been lied to about America's current president. Last December, Newsday reported an electrifying surge in black support for Trump, with three national polls showing his approval among black voters at 33, 34, and 35 percent, respectively. With Democrats having taken the black vote for granted since the 1960s, survey results like those could torpedo their chances on November 3.
With a Republican president extending a hand of genuine friendship to the black community, the race card is losing its clout, but that won't stop more fabricated charges of racism against President Trump. In attempting to drive down his record approval among black voters, Democrats will continue using one of the Third Reich's most effective propaganda techniques: if you're going to lie, make it a Big Lie, keep repeating it, and people will believe it.
See how a half-century of Democrat rule has devastated urban America by watching this heart-tugging 2014 video.
