Trump faces questions on racism in last debate
DONALD TRUMP’S family company was sued for implementing a “no blacks” policy in relation to their real estate, it has been revealed, as scuffles and racist insults flew at a rally for the Republican presidential front-runner.
The audience with Mr Trump, on the eve of the last Republican debate of the year in Las Vegas, turned ugly when some of his supporters yelled “Scumbags” and “Sieg Heil” at protesters from the Black Lives Matter movement.
Though Mr Trump would not have heard the comments he waved from the podium and said “bye bye” as the protesters were removed.
It was not his first encounter with accusations of racism. In 1973, the department of justice sued Trump management, accusing them of refusing to rent properties to black tenants. The court documents, unearthed by the US website Daily Beast, carry the testimony of employees who describe a crude code implemented when renting properties in Brooklyn and Queens in New York, and Norfolk, Virginia.
When black people applied to rent an apartment, employees would attach a sheet bearing a stamp of the letter ‘C’, to indicate the person’s skin colour, the department of justice was told. They would also be quoted higher rents.
Employees claimed that Fred Trump, Mr Trump’s father had openly promoted the practice. Mr Trump claimed at the time not to be involved in the running of the business.
Trump Management succeeded in settling the case in 1975 with a consent decree, that they noted did not constitute an admission of wrongdoing.
Mr Trump consistently denied the accusations and has continued throughout his presidential campaign to state that he is the “least racist person on Earth”. He went into the last Republican debate last night with his biggest ever lead in national polls. A Washington Post-ABC News poll gave him 38 per cent support among Republican voters with Ted Cruz second on 15 per cent.