Donald Trump is even more of a racist than you thought

| 3:01 pm EDT July 18, 2019
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

Readers of and writers for Palmer Report are already aware of “President” Donald Trump’s racism. This piece is written in the small hope that someone out there, who still believes this horrible man, might read it and learn that Trump’s behavior isn’t new. Trump’s racism is clearly outlined in a piece published by The Atlantic called “An Oral History of Trump’s Bigotry,” and I may well have to write this in several parts. Let’s begin with the lawsuit I mentioned yesterday filed by the Justice Department in 1973 against Fred and Donald Trump. Trump first responded to the suit by saying that he and his father “have never discriminated, and we never would.” Others begged to differ—and they had proof.

When the Justice Department decided to go after the Trumps, they focused on 39 properties in New York City. The lawsuit stemmed from employees being directed to tell lease applicants of color that no apartments were available. Company policy was to “rent only to Jews and executives,” a quote which is contained in public documents filed with the court. The Urban League and a group called Operation Open City heard about this and began sending “testers” – two couples pretending to look for rentals, one white and one black, to Trump Village. Trump Village was a large, lower to middle class housing project in Brooklyn, which any number of families could certainly afford. The white couple experienced no difficulties in renting apartments while the black couple was told that no apartments were available. To ensure that the couple wasn’t later chosen by accident, their application was marked with a big “C.”

After being sued, Donald Trump hired Roy Cohn (Senator Joe McCarthy’s chief counsel), and his first course of action was to sue the Justice Department for $100 million. The judge allowed Cohn to speak for two hours before telling him that the government cannot be sued simply because they sued Trump. With that out of the way, the Justice Department began taking depositions in the case. Elyse Goldweber took Donald Trump’s deposition. She said that he is “exactly the way he is today.” When they took a break in the deposition, Goldweber shares that Trump walked up to her and said, “You know, you don’t want to live with them either.” The parties ended up entering into a consent decree, which allowed the Trumps to settle without admitting guilt, but to their chagrin, they had to begin listing all of their apartments with the Urban League, which one might call poetic justice. A mere five years later, however, the Justice Department had to go after them for breach of the agreement, meaning they were continuing their discriminatory ways.

Republicans can try to cover for Trump all they want, but his history reveals his true nature and his real feelings about people of color. They also cannot discredit the contributors to this portion of the Atlantic’s piece: Nathaniel Jones, former General Counsel for the NAACP and federal judge; John Yinger, an economist specializing in residential discrimination; and Elyse Goldweber, one of the Justice Department lawyers who brought suit against the Trumps. This is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, so please stay tuned.