Highlights:
Donald Trump made racist remarks regarding Black stereotypes and crime as his campaign wanted to court Black voters.
Trump Said There Were “Very Fine People On Both Sides” After The Unite The Right Rally In Charlottesville. According to ABC News, “The ‘Unite the Right’ rally took place Aug. 11 and 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, where white nationalists protested the city’s decision to remove a statue of Lee. Rally participants chanted anti-Semitic, Nazi-associated phrases and clashed with counter protesters. […] ‘You also had some very fine people on both sides,’ Trump said in 2017. ‘You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, of to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.’” [ABC News, 4/26/19]
Trump Said That He Answered Perfectly In Regards To His Response To The Charlottesville Rally. According to ABC News, "TRUMP: If you look at what I said, you will see that that question was answered perfectly,’ Trump said Friday in an exchange with ABC's Terry Moran. ‘And I was talking about people that went because they felt very strongly about the monument to Robert E. Lee, a great general.’" [ABC News, 4/26/19]
Trump Falsely Claimed Vice President Harris “Happened To Turn Black,” Despite The Fact That She Is A Black Woman. According to CNN, “Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed Wednesday that his 2024 Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, ‘happened to turn Black’ a few years ago, saying that ‘all of a sudden, she made a turn’ in her identity. Trump’s comments at a gathering of Black journalists in Chicago came when an interviewer asked him whether he agreed with Republicans on Capitol Hill who have characterized Harris as a ‘DEI hire.’ Trump responded by questioning Harris’ heritage. ‘She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?’ the former president said. ‘I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went – she became a Black person,’ he said at the National Association of Black Journalists convention. ‘I think somebody should look into that too.’” [CNN, 7/31/24]
The Trump Campaign Questioned Harris’ Racial Identity. According to Politico, “After the panel interview — and despite the pushback — Trump and his campaign leaned into the messaging about Harris’ racial identity. Before his rally Wednesday night in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the campaign flashed on screen a graphic of Harris laughing, with a screenshot of a news headline referring to her as ‘Indian-American.’ His attorney, Alina Habba, appeared to intentionally mispronounce Harris’ first name when she said ‘unlike you, Kamala, I know who my roots are. I know where I come from.’” [Politico, 8/1/24]
Trump’s Campaign Sought To Attack Harris As Inauthentic And Too Liberal, But Trump Went After Her On Her Racial Identity. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Donald Trump ignited a firestorm by questioning Kamala Harris’s racial identity, an attack that risks harming his larger campaign strategy to define her. Trump and his team are trying to shape how Americans view Harris, just two weeks into her presidential bid, before she can reintroduce herself to the nation as a candidate in her own right. She will get her biggest opportunity to do that at the Democratic National Convention later this month. Before then, the Trump campaign and other Republicans have worked to cast her as inauthentic in how she presents herself and as too liberal for the country. ‘We have to work hard to define her,’ Trump said at an Atlanta rally Saturday, before quickly catching himself and adding: ‘I don’t want to even define her, I just want to say who she is: She’s a horror show.’ But Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks days earlier about her identity, which caused some of his aides to gasp, further injected race and gender into the campaign. The controversy threatens to derail their effort to define her when his campaign, thus far a more disciplined operation than his earlier bids, is eager to blunt the sudden energy for Harris.” [Wall Street Journal, 8/4/24]
Trump Questioned Harris’ Racial Identity
Trump Questioned Harris’ Racial Identity. According to the Associated Press, “Trump has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes and falsely claiming that Harris, who attended a historically Black university, hid her race during her career. ‘I read where she was not Black,’ Trump said when asked about comments questioning Harris’ race, adding a minute later, ‘and then I read that she was Black.’ He seemed to suggest her race was a choice, saying twice, ‘That’s up to her.’ ‘I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people,’ Harris responded.” [Associated Press, 9/11/24]
Trump Did Not Regret Falsely Accusing Harris Of Changing Her Racial Identity. According to the New York Times, “According to two people present, Mr. Trump himself also brought up his remark, made two days earlier at a gathering of the National Association of Black Journalists, in which he had questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’s racial identity. It had been a display of flagrant race-baiting that was egregious even by Mr. Trump’s standards, and it instantly reprogrammed America’s TV news chyrons: He falsely claimed that Ms. Harris had only recently decided to identify as Black for political purposes. But Mr. Trump showed no regret. ‘I think I was right,’ he told the rattled donors that Friday night.” [New York Times, 8/10/24]
Trump Refused To Answer When Asked If Harris Was A “DEI Hire.” According to CNN, “Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed Wednesday that his 2024 Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, ‘happened to turn Black’ a few years ago, saying that ‘all of a sudden, she made a turn’ in her identity. Trump’s comments at a gathering of Black journalists in Chicago came when an interviewer asked him whether he agreed with Republicans on Capitol Hill who have characterized Harris as a ‘DEI hire.’ Trump responded by questioning Harris’ heritage. ‘She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?’ the former president said. ‘I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went – she became a Black person,’ he said at the National Association of Black Journalists convention. ‘I think somebody should look into that too.’” [CNN, 7/31/24]
Trump Repeatedly Mispronounced Vice President Harris’ First Name. According to the Associated Press, “Later Wednesday, Trump did not repeat his criticism of Harris’ race at a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, although he called her ‘phony’ and said she has been trying to change her image. He also repeatedly mispronounced her first name.” [Associated Press, 7/31/24]
Truth Social: Trump Reposted The Gateway Pundit Article That Proclaimed Due Haley’s Parents Lack Of U.S. Citizenship At The Time Of Her Birth, She Was Not Eligible To Be President. [Truth Social, @realdonaldtrump, 1/8/24]
Trump Referred To Nikki Haley By “Nimrada,” A Misspelling Of Her Legal First Name. According to CNN, “Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday went after Nikki Haley while referring to her by her first name, Nimarata, in the latest example of Trump using racist dog whistles to attack his GOP presidential rival. Haley is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She took her husband Michael Haley’s last name after they married. Trump misspelled Nimarata as ‘Nimrada’ as he attacked her in a new post on his social media platform Truth Social. ‘Anyone listening to Nikki ‘Nimrada’ Haley’s wacked out speech last night, would think that she won the Iowa Primary. She didn’t, and she couldn’t even beat a very flawed Ron DeSanctimonious, who’s out of money, and out of hope,’ Trump posted on Truth Social.” [CNN, 1/17/24]
Using Haley’s First Name Was Seen As A Racist Dog Whistle. According to CNN, “Donald Trump is seeking to deliver a knockout blow to Nikki Haley in New Hampshire’s Republican primary, deploying racist dog whistles against the onetime South Carolina governor as the former president ramps up his campaign schedule and hammers his rival on the airwaves. For weeks, Trump’s campaign has treated Haley as a serious threat in New Hampshire — and the candidate himself made that clear starting Tuesday with a series of attacks on social media and at a rally in the state. He went after Haley while referring to her first name, Nimarata, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social (though he misspelled Nimarata as Nimrada). Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa and took her husband’s last name after they married.” [CNN, 1/17/24]
John O’Donnell, Trump Associate, Said Trump Would Often Describe Black People As Lazy And Stupid. According to Donald Trump: A Biography Of The Mogul Turned Presidential Candidate, “For instance, a former Trump associate, John O’Donnell, wrote that Trump would often describe black people as being lazy and stupid; he would bemoan the ‘black guys counting my money.’ He would prefer the ‘short guys that wear yarmulkes.’ It wasn’t only African-Americans who had earned Trump’s derision. Years later, Trump told Playboy that these remarks were ‘probably true.’” [Donald Trump: A Biography Of The Mogul Turned Presidential Candidate, 2015]
O’Donnell Book: Trump Said, “I’ve Got Black Accountants At Trump Castle And At Trump Plaza. 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.” According to Never Enough: Donald Trump And The Pursuit Of Success, “After years of drama and stress, John O’Donnell would leave Trump’s employ in 1990. When the onetime president of the Trump Plaza Hotel published his tell-all book about his former boss, he presented a picture of an imperious and possibly prejudiced man who seemed indifferent to others. In Trumped!, O’Donnell wrote that his former boss had said, ‘I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and at Trump Plaza. 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.’” [Michael D’Antonio: Never Enough: Donald Trump And The Pursuit Of Success, September 2015]
1989: Trump Said, “If I Was Starting Off Today, I Would Love To Be A Well-Educated Black, Because I Really Do Believe They Have The Actual Advantage Today.” According to Newsday, “The most idiotic statement of the show - if not the year - was uttered by Donald Trump. In attacking affirmative action, the billionaire said: ‘If I was starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated black, because I really do believe they have the actual advantage today.’” [Newsday, 9/24/89]
VIDEO: Trump Said That African-American Youths Had “No Spirit.” According to remarks by Donald Trump, “If you look at black and African—you just take a look—and if you look at black and African-American youth, I mean to a point where they've just about never done more poorly; there's no spirit, there's killings on an hourly basis, virtually, in places like Baltimore and Chicago, certain sections of Chicago, and many other places that we could talk about, many other places.” [Donald Trump, Press Gaggle, Video, 6/23/15]
Former Apprentice Producer Bill Pruitt Wrote That Trump Used The N-Word To Describe A Black Contestant. According to Slate, “‘Why didn’t he just fire her?’ Trump asks, referring to Omarosa. It’s a reasonable question. Given that this the first time we’ve ever been in this situation, none of this is something we expected. ‘That’s not his job,’ Bienstock says to Trump. ‘That’s yours.’ Trump’s head continues to bob. ‘I don’t think he knew he had the ability to do that,’ Kepcher says. Trump winces again. ‘Yeah,’ he says to no one in particular, ‘but, I mean, would America buy a n— winning?’” [Slate, 5/30/24]
April 2011: Trump: “I Have A Great Relationship With The Blacks.” According to the New York Daily News, “DONALD TRUMP unleashed more scorn for President Obama yesterday - but insisted it had nothing to do with race because he has a ‘great relationship with the blacks.’ Trump said he was dismayed by Obama’s strong support within the African-American community. ‘I know many Obama supporters,’ Trump said on Albany’s Talk 1300 radio. ‘I have a great relationship with the blacks but unfortunately the [poll] numbers that you cite are very, very frightening numbers.’’’ [New York Daily News, 4/15/11]
AUDIO: Trump: “I’ve Always Had A Great Relationship With The Blacks.” According to Albany’s Talk, “TRUMP: I have a great relationship with the blacks. I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks.” [Donald Trump via Albany’s Talk 1300, 4/14/11]
Attempting To Walk Back His Call To MAGA Supporters To Defend The White House, Trump Asserted, “MAGA Loves The Black People.” According to MSNBC, “Almost immediately, observers questioned whether Trump wanted to see his ‘Make America Great Again’ supporters confront those protesting racial injustices at the White House. During a brief Q&A soon after, the president tried to clarify his message: ‘MAGA says ‘Make America Great Again.’ These are people that love our country. I have no idea if they’re going to be here. I was just asking. But I have no idea if they’re going to be here. But MAGA is ‘Make America Great Again.’ By the way, they love African-American people. They love black people. MAGA loves the black people.’” [MSNBC, 6/1/20]
Trump Described Potentially Struggling Black Communities Located In Cities As “Ghettos.” According to the Washington Post, “Donald Trump on Thursday referred to urban areas populated by African Americans and plagued by violence and economic struggles as ‘ghettos’ during an afternoon rally. ‘And we’re going to work on our — ghettos, are in so the, you take a look at what’s going on where you have pockets of, areas of land where you have the inner cities and you have so many things, so many problems,’ Trump said, appearing to catch himself and fumble over his words. ‘So many horrible, horrible problems. The violence. The death. The lack of education. No jobs.’ ‘Ghetto’ is not a word that public officials and candidates tend to use to describe struggling urban areas, as some find it troubling or outdated in that context.” [Washington Post, 10/27/16]
Trump Repeatedly Utilized The Phrase “Inner City” To Reference All Black People And Issues Affecting Black Communities. According to Vox, “Three presidential debates later and Donald Trump still seems to have no idea that black people live anywhere but the inner city. In the final moment of the third presidential debate, Trump continued to link black and brown communities to America’s ‘disastrous’ urban centers. ‘Our inner cities are a disaster,’ Trump said. ‘You get shot walking to the store. They have no education, they have no jobs. I will do more for African Americans and Latinos than [Hillary Clinton] can ever do in ten lifetimes. All she has done is talk to the African Americans and to the Latinos.’ This is the same talking point he’s brought up before. During the second presidential debate, an audience member asked candidates if they ‘can be a devoted president to all the people in the United States.’ Trump deflected by pointing fingers at Clinton for calling some of his supporters ‘deplorable,’ cited massive loss, only to then say ‘I would be a president for all of the people. African-Americans, the inner cities. Devastating what’s happening to our inner cities.’ The same thing happened during the first presidential debate. When Lester Holt, the debate moderator, brought up the subject of race, each candidate was asked to discuss how they would ‘heal [America’s racial] divide.’ Clinton spoke on the need to redress racial bias in policing, as evidenced by the latest string of extrajudicial killings of African Americans by police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Trump, by contrast, implied black people are universally trapped in the crime-ridden hellscape of ‘the inner city.’” [Vox, 10/20/16]
Trump Said He Had “Tremendous Support” From The “Hispanic Latino.” According to Axios, “Trump also said he had ‘tremendous support from the, I call Hispanic Latino,’ adding ‘they're just great people, incredible people.’” [Axios, 11/10/23]
Trump Called New York Attorney General Leticia James, “Leticia Peekaboo James.” According to Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social, “TRUMP: Attorney General Letitia ‘Peekaboo’ James, a total crime fighting disaster in New York, is spending all of her time fighting for very powerful and well represented banks and insurance companies, who were fully paid, made a lot of money, and never had a complaint about me, instead of fighting murder and violent crime, which is killing New York State.” [Truth Social, @realdonaldtrump, 9/21/22]
The Trump Campaign Sent Out An Email That Attacked Fani Willis And Her Family For Being “Steeped In Hate.” According to Mediaite, “Soon after the charges were made public, the Trump campaign sent out a lengthy email titled ‘The Truth About Fani Willis,’ which alleged the prosecutor was ‘a Democrat activist’ and that she came from a family ‘steeped in hate.”’ [Mediaite, 8/15/23]
VIDEO: Trump Sarcastically Tried To Pronounce Fani Willis’s Name, While Insulting Her Integrity. According to Donald Trump’s speech at the National Rifle Association via YouTube, “TRUMP: It's never happened in our country before. And the local DAs are part of it. And the attorney generals are all a part of it. You saw what happened in Atlanta with Fani, Fani, Fani. How do you pronounce FANI, ‘Fawney’”? [Donald Trump via YouTube, 2/10/24] (1:35:46)
Trump Attacked A Group Of U.S. Congresswomen Asserting They Were Originally Born Outside The United States And Insisted They “Go Back” To And “Help Fix The Totally Broken And Crime Infested Places.” According to the New York Times, “President Trump said on Sunday that a group of four minority congresswomen feuding with Speaker Nancy Pelosi should ‘go back’ to the countries they came from rather than ‘loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States’ how to run the government. Wrapped inside that insult, which was widely established as a racist trope, was a factually inaccurate claim: Only one of the lawmakers was born outside the country. Even though Mr. Trump has repeatedly refused to back down from stoking racial divisions, his willingness to deploy a lowest-rung slur — one commonly and crudely used to single out the perceived foreignness of nonwhite, non-Christian people — was largely regarded as beyond the pale. ‘So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world,’ Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, ‘now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run.’ Mr. Trump added: ‘Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done.’ Delivered on the day he had promised widespread immigration raids, Mr. Trump’s comments signaled a new low in how far he will go to affect public discourse surrounding the issue.’” [New York Times, 7/14/19]
Leaders From Around The World Condemned Trump’s Attacks Against U.S. Congress Women Pressley, Tlaib And Omar. According to Business Insider, “The international community, at least parts of it, has condemned US President Donald Trump’s racist tweets. Trump’s attacks were at Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — all of whom are Americans. Leaders from Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland, and the European Council, have spoken at press conferences, or taken to Twitter, to condemn Trump when he told the US congresswomen to ‘go back’ to the ‘totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.’” [Business Insider, 7/19/19]
2015: Trump Statement On Preventing Muslim Immigration: “It Is Obvious To Anybody The Hatred Is Beyond Comprehension. […] Our Country Cannot Be The Victims Of Horrendous Attacks By People That Believe Only In Jihad.” According to a statement from the Donald J. Trump campaign, “Mr. Trump stated, ‘Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine. Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life. If I win the election for President, we are going to Make America Great Again.’” [Donald J. Trump Campaign, 12/7/15]
Trump On Whether Islam Is An Inherently Violent Religion: “There’s Something Going On There. There’s A Lot Of Hatred Coming Out Of At Least A Big Part Of It. You See The Hatred.” According to the Washington Post, “On Morning Joe today, Bloomberg’s John Heilemann asked Trump directly whether he thinks Islam is an inherently violent or peaceful religion. Trump declined to answer, and instead suggested that there is a ‘lot of hatred’ coming out of a ‘big part’ of Islam: HEILEMANN: ‘Do you think that Islam is an inherently peaceful religion that’s been perverted by some? Or do you think Islam is an inherently violent religion?’ TRUMP: ‘All I can say is there’s something going on. I don’t know that that question can be answered. It could be answered two ways. It could be answered both ways. But there’s something going on there. There’s a lot of hatred coming out of at least a big part of it. You see the hatred. We see it every day. You see it, whether it’s in Paris, or whether it’s the World Trade Center…. ‘There’s something nasty coming out of there. You could answer it any way you want. But at least we have to know the problem.’” [Washington Post, 11/30/15]
VIDEO: Trump: “I Watched When The World Trade Center Came Tumbling Down. And I Watched In Jersey City, New Jersey, Where Thousands And Thousands Of People Were Cheering As That Building Was Coming Down.” According to Donald Trump at his rally in Birmingham, “TRUMP: Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.” [Donald Trump, Rally, Birmingham, AL, 11/21/15]
November 2015: Trump: “There Were People That Were Cheering On The Other Side Of New Jersey Where You Have Large Arab Populations. They Were Cheering As The World Trade Center Came Down.” According to ABC News, “Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump defended comments he made Saturday saying he saw thousands of people in Jersey City, New Jersey cheering when the World Trade Center was destroyed on September 11, 2001. ‘There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations,’ he told George Stephanopoulos today on ABC’s ‘This Week.’ ‘They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down. I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down -- as those buildings came down, and that tells you something. It was well covered at the time.’” [ABC News, 11/22/15]
PolitiFact Found No Reports To Corroborate Trump’s Claim That He Saw People Cheering In Jersey City On September 11, 2001. According to PolitiFact, “We conducted an exhaustive search of newspaper and television transcripts on LexisNexis, looking for reports from September 2001 through December 2001 that made any mention of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the 9/11 attacks. Regarding Jersey City, which Trump mentioned specifically, we found two uncorroborated and unsourced mentions. Neither begins to approach the scale Trump described.” [PolitiFact, 11/22/15]
2015: Trump: “I Want Surveillance Of Certain Mosques. You Know What? We’ve Had It Before And We’ll Have It Again.” According to Breitbart, “GOP front runner Donald Trump is tearing into the media, and vowing to fight terrorists. Before an enthusiastic crowd of 10,000 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex on Saturday, Trump told the crowd, ‘They’re dishonest people. The media is so dishonest.’ Trump then set the record straight on how he wants to deal with the ISIS terrorist threat to America. ‘I want surveillance of certain mosques,’ he told the crowd. ‘You know what? We’ve had it before and we’ll have it again.’” [Breitbart, 11/21/15]
Trump: “I Heard That Under The Old Regime We Had Tremendous Surveillance Going On In And Around The Mosques Of New York City.” According to MSNBC, “You’re going to have to watch and study the mosques because a lot of talk is going on at the mosques. From what I’ve heard, in the old days, meaning a while ago, we had great surveillance going on in and around mosques in New York City and I understand our mayor totally cut that out. He totally cut it out. And I don’t know if you’ve brought that up and I’m not sure it’s a fact, but I heard that under the old regime we had tremendous surveillance going on in and around the mosques of New York City and right now that’s been totally cut out.” [MSNBC, 11/16/15]
2015: Trump: “We’re Going To Have No Choice” But To Shut Down Mosques In America. According to The Hill, “GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump says the United States has ‘absolutely no choice’ but to close down mosques where ‘some bad things are happening.’ ‘Nobody wants to say this and nobody wants to shut down religious institutions or anything, but you know, you understand it,’ Trump said on Fox News’s ‘Hannity’ on Tuesday. ‘A lot of people understand it. We’re going to have no choice.’ Trump said on Monday he would ‘strongly consider’ closing mosques if elected in response to the terrorist attacks in France last Friday that killed at least 129 people and injured hundreds more.” [The Hill, 11/18/15]
Trump Said He Would “Strongly Consider” Closing Mosques. According to MSNBC, “’SCARBOROUGH: The French are talking about [shutting down mosques].Is that something that you would consider doing as president?’ ‘TRUMP: I would hate to do it but it’s something that you’re going to have to strongly consider because some of the ideas and some of the hatred, the absolute hatred, is coming from these areas. New York City is an example. We had a group of people, from what I understand, that really knew what they were doing, that were really studying the situation and they’re not doing that anymore under the new mayor. They’re not doing that anymore and I think that’s a mistake. It’s something that many people – not me, it’s something that many people are considering and many people are going to do.’” [MSNBC, 11/16/15]
November 20, 2015: Trump Said That He Would Certainly Implement A National Muslim Database. According to the New York Times, “Donald J. Trump, who earlier in the week said he was open to requiring Muslims in the United States to register in a database, said on Thursday night that he ‘would certainly implement that — absolutely.’ Mr. Trump was asked about the issue by an NBC News reporter and pressed on whether all Muslims in the country would be forced to register. ‘They have to be,’ he said. ‘They have to be.’” [New York Times, 11/20/15]
November 21, 2015: Trump Claimed Media Reports That He Supported Registry Of All American Muslims Was “A False Story.” According to Breitbart, “But the media, Trump says, is not honestly reporting his policy positions. ‘Today, in the New York Times, they had a report on the front page that was false,’ Trump said. ‘Front page… But it’s a false story. And Breitbart wrote it correctly, and now The Times is suffering.’ Trump explained the origin of the false meme created and spread by the mainstream media that he had called for the registry of all Muslims in America in a data base: Yesterday, some little wise guy, he looks like he was 12 years old, he’s got a camera. I’m signing autographs. He’s asking me questions. Talking about the wall. And I’m signing autographs. Talking about the wall. I’m going to build this… And there’s music plating in the background, and I’m leaving and this little wise guy is sitting there and he says to me questions… I’m just not even and I said to him, who are you with, and he said NBC, and once he said that I didn’t even bother answering his questions any more. ‘And the biggest story of yesterday was ‘Trump Wants Database of Muslims,’ and I said ‘What’s all happening here?’ Trump asked, incredulously. ‘I spoke to the reporter for The Times. And I think I made it clear,’ he said.” [Breitbart, 11/21/15]
2015: Trump: “I Think There Can Be Profiling” To Counter Terrorism. According to Business Insider, “Donald Trump suggested Sunday that ‘profiling’ could be an effective tool to decrease homegrown terrorist threats. ABC News reported this week that a neighbor of Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik — the couple who police say killed 14 and injured 21 in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California — was suspicious of the couple’s activity before the shooting. But he did not alert law enforcement because he ‘didn’t want to profile’ Farook and his wife. In an interview on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday, Trump expressed bewilderment at the notion. ‘We don’t want to profile. Can you believe this?’ Trump told host John Dickerson. ‘I think there can be profiling. If [Farook’s neighbors] thought there was something wrong with that group ... and they didn’t want to call the police because they didn’t want to be profiling, I think that’s pretty bad. People are dead. A lot of people are dead right now. So everybody wants to be politically correct, and that’s part of the problem that we have with our country.’” [Business Insider, 12/6/15]
December 2015: Trump On Fears About Profiling: “Give Me A Break.” According to NBC News, “Citing the San Bernardino shooting that left 14 people dead, Trump called out those who didn’t report the shooters sooner. ‘I watched the next door neighbor saying ‘oh well we didn’t report them because we didn’t want to racially profile’ or ‘we didn’t want to profile’,’ Trump said. ‘Give me a break.’ Urging the crowd to do more in their own neighborhoods, Trump promised to protect them from the consequences of racial profiling. ‘When we see violations, you have to report those violations and quickly. Don’t worry about profiling,’ he told the few thousand person crowd. ‘I promise I will defend you from profiling.’” [NBC News, 12/7/15]
1993: Trump Said During A Congressional Hearing That, “Organized Crime Is Rampant On Indian Reservations.” According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “A congressional hearing on American Indian gambling establishments erupted into a nasty yelling match yesterday when casino king Donald Trump charged that Indian gaming is rife with organized crime and represents the ‘biggest scandal since Al Capone.’ ‘Organized crime is rampant on Indian reservations,’ Trump shouted to a House subcommittee. ‘People know it; people talk about it. It’s going to blow. It’s just a matter of time. And when it blows, you’re going to have some very embarrassed faces sitting right where you are now.’” [Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/6/93]
1993: Trump Suggested There Should Be A Method Of Ensuring That People Are Really Indians Before They Can Open A Casino On Indian Land. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Trump also angered some onlookers by suggesting there should be a method of ensuring that people are really Indians before they can open a casino on Indian lands.” [Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/6/93]
1993: Trump Said The Nation That Owned Foxwoods Casino “Don’t Look Like Indians To Me. They Don’t Look Like Indians To Indians.” According to the Hartford Courant, “It was 1993, and Trump’s target at the time was the Mashantucket Pequots, whose Foxwoods casino and high-stakes bingo hall was less than two years old but had already eclipsed the big hotels of Atlantic City and Las Vegas. ‘They don’t look like Indians to me,’ Trump said to a congressional subcommittee inquiring about organized crime and policing in Native American casinos. ‘They don’t look like Indians to Indians.’ The remark drew instant calls of racism. It still resonates in Connecticut, where Foxwoods and later Mohegan Sun grew to employ a total of more than 20,000 people before retrenching in recent years.” [Hartford Courant, 1/13/16]
1993: Trump On Tribal Gambling: “It’s Amazing How Many People Are Claiming Tribal Rights All Of A Sudden.” According to the New York Times, “‘What they’re doing is wrong, and it’s disgraceful,’ Mr. Trump said, adding that he believed the only reason the group was seeking tribal status was to eventually open a casino in the state. ‘It’s amazing how many people are claiming tribal rights all of a sudden,’ he said.” [New York Times, 8/1/93]
1993: Trump Said Native American Sovereignty Was “Only Sovereignty In That They Don’t Have To Pay Taxes. It’s Not A Fair Situation.” According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “He drew even more gasps by attacking the notion of Indian sovereignty - the system that allows tribes to govern themselves. ‘It’s only sovereignty in that they don’t have to pay taxes,’ said Trump, adding that he makes millions from his casinos and pays millions in taxes. ‘It’s not a fair situation. Nobody is more for Indians than Donald Trump. But I like to compete on an equal foot.’” [Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/6/93]
Trump Repeatedly Referred To Senator Elizabeth Warren As “Pocahontas” To Insult Her Native American Ancestry. According to Politico, “President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he planned to revive an old attack strategy on Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, focusing on her contentious past claims of Native American heritage. ‘Like, Elizabeth Warren — I did the Pocahontas thing,’ Trump said during a New Hampshire rally Thursday. ‘I hit her really hard and it looked like she was down and out but that was too long ago, I should’ve waited. But don’t worry, we will revive it.’ […] Though controversial at the start of her candidacy at the beginning of the year, the issue of her heritage has since faded from public attention. Still, that hasn’t stopped Trump from calling the Massachusetts senator ‘Pocahontas’ at many of his rallies — a moniker that has been widely panned as racist. Trump said on Thursday that he regretted going after her on her claims of heritage so soon and that he would renew the line of attack going forward.” [Politico, 8/15/19]
Trump Referenced The Trail Of Tears As Part Of A Series Of Insults Against Senator Elizabeth Warren. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Trump tweeted: ‘Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President. Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore? See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!’ A number of points need to be made here. One is that Trump appears actually to be proud of his infantile ‘Pocahontas’ taunt, which he’s been wielding against Warren for a couple of years. The insult refers to family lore of Native American heritage that Warren has cited. […] Trump’s reference to the ‘TRAIL’ in all-capital letters looks like a reference to the Trail of Tears, the genocidal removal of Indian tribes from their Eastern homelands during the presidencies of Andrew Jackson and Martin van Buren in the 1830s. As many as 4,000 tribal members died during the forced removal, undertaken so that their lands could be turned over to white farmers and gold prospectors. More on that in a moment.” [Los Angeles Times, 2/11/19]
Trump Told A Gathering Of Black Republicans That Black People Like Him Because He, Too, Has Been Charged By The Criminal Justice System And Because They Relate To His Mugshot. According to the New York Times, “He has repeatedly accused three Black prosecutors investigating him of ‘reverse racism.’ He told a gathering of Black Republicans that Black people like him because he, too, has been charged by the criminal justice system. And he has suggested that Black people relate to his mug shot. There’s a fundamental tension in Donald J. Trump’s attempts to woo Black voters. He repeatedly traffics in stereotypes about Black Americans, yet he is counting on them, and aggressively courting them, to help him win back the White House in November. His campaign is relying on achieving modest gains with Black voters — or peeling some away from President Biden and toward a third-party or independent candidate such as Cornel West or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and it is part of his math for 2024. Public polling shows him faring better with Black voters than any Republican presidential candidate has in decades.” [New York Times, 3/12/24]
Trump Accused Biden Of Creating A “Border Blood Bath.” According to the New York Times, “Former President Donald J. Trump again cast President Biden’s immigration record in violent and ominous terms on Tuesday, accusing him of creating a ‘border blood bath’ and once more using dehumanizing language to describe some migrants entering the country illegally. In a speech in Grand Rapids, Mich., Mr. Trump, flanked by law enforcement officers, reiterated his baseless claim that other countries were sending ‘prisoners, murderers, drug dealers, mental patients and terrorists, the worst they have’ to the United States. Immigration officials have said that most of those crossing the border are members of vulnerable families escaping poverty and violence.” [New York Times, 4/2/24]
Trump Again Called Migrants Accused Of Crimes “Animals.” According to the New York Times, “Mr. Trump also used his speech, which lasted roughly 45 minutes, to defend his use of dehumanizing language to refer to immigrants accused of crimes. ‘Democrats said please don’t call them ‘animals,’’ Mr. Trump said. ‘I said no, they’re not humans, they’re animals.’” [New York Times, 4/2/24]
Trump Repeated A Lie That Haitian Immigrants Were Abducting And Eating Pets In Springfield, Ohio. According to the Associated Press, “Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were abducting and eating pets, repeating during a televised debate the type of inflammatory and anti-immigrant rhetoric he has promoted throughout his campaigns. There is no evidence that Haitian immigrants in an Ohio community are doing that, officials say. But during the debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump specifically mentioned Springfield, Ohio, the town at the center of the claims, saying that immigrants were taking over the city. ‘They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,’ he said. Harris called Trump ‘extreme’ and laughed after his comment. Debate moderators pointed out that city officials have said the claims are not true.” [Associated Press, 9/10/24]