New book by ex-Trump exec alleges early racism

Res urges Americans not to give president a 2nd term in office

WASHINGTON — Nearly four decades ago, after erecting his eponymous skyscraper on Fifth Avenue inManhattan, Donald Trumpwould sit behind his rosewood desk and muse about working in an evenmore powerful office.

“These politicians don’t know anything,” he said. “Maybe I should run for president. Wouldn’t that be something?”

Barbara Res, a longtime executive in Trump’s real estate company, brushed off the idea right up until he was elected president. Now thathe’s inthefinalweeksof his reelection campaign, Res is set to release a new book she has written titled

A new book by a longtime executive in Donald Trump’s real estate company recounts repugnant comments.

“Tower of Lies,” urging Americans not to give him a second term.

The book recounts racist, anti-Semitic and sexist behavior, along with Trump’s

ability to lie “so naturally” that “if you didn’t know the actual facts, he could slip something past you.”

“The seeds of who he is today were planted back

Barbara Res notes “bigotry and bias” control President Trump’s view of the world.

when I worked with him,” Res wrote. “He was able to control others, through lies and exaggeration, with promises of money or jobs, through threats of lawsuits or exposure. He surrounded himself with yes- men, blamed others for his own failures, never took responsibility, and always stole credit.

“These tactics are still at work, just deployed at the highest levels of the U.S. government, with all the corruption and chaos that necessarily ensue.”

The book, a copy of which was obtained exclusively by the Los Angeles Times ahead of Tuesday’s release, adds to a growing shelf of election-year treatises flaying the president. Trump has been excoriated in print by Michael Cohen, his former lawyer; John Bolton, his third national security adviser; Mary Trump, his niece; and Bob Woodward, the veteran journalist.

Trump’s campaign brushed aside the latest entry.

“This is transparently a disgruntled former employee packaging a bunch of lies in a book to make money,” said Tim Murtaugh, communications director for Trump’s campaign.

In her account, Res wrote that “bigotry and bias control Donald’s view of the world, even the so-called positive stereotypes, which are just as damaging, like saying the Japanese (whom he seems to despise) are smarter than Americans.”

She recalled Trump berating herwhenhe spotted a Blackworker on a construction site.

“Get him off there right now,” he said, “and don’t ever let that happen again. I don’t want people to think that Trump Tower is being built by Black people.”

Trump turned red-faced when she brought a young Black job applicant into the lobby of another building, she wrote.

“Barbara, I don’t want Black kids sitting in the lobbywhere people come to buy million-dollar apartments!”

Res wrote that Trump hired a German residential manager, believing his heritage made him “especially clean and orderly,” and then joked in front of Jewish executives that “this guystill reminisces about the ovens, so you guys betterwatch out for him.”

Trump and his campaign often pointed to Res during the 2016 election as an example of his progressive history of hiring and promoting women. But during her 18-year tenure, she wrote, Trump talked frequently and graphically about women’s looks and his own sexual exploits — and forced Res to fire a woman because she was pregnant and bar her own secretary from important meetings because she did not look like amodel.

Res has been frequently critical of Trump since leaving the company two decades ago, and she pledged to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. She admitted that some people may dismiss her experiences because she worked for Trump so long ago, but she said that would be amistake.

If Trump has changed, she wrote, “He’s only become more himself. He is Trump raised to the nth degree, butTrumpnonetheless. Donald Squared, I call him.”

Trump hired Res when he was planning his skyscraper on Fifth Avenue. She recalled visiting his expansive apartment for a job interview as Trump pitched her on the plan.

“It’s gonna be the most talked about building in the world,” he said. Then he added, “I want you to build it.” At the time, Res was a young project manager in the male-dominated New York construction industry.

Trump turned out to be a difficult boss, blaming others for his mistakes, taking undue credit and withholding promised bonuses on a whim, Reswrites.

After Trump Tower was finished, Resworked on and off for Trump until 1998, at one point serving as his executive vice president for construction and development.