Chicago Sun-Times

Cohen: Trump made racist comment during drive through Chicago

- BY NADER ISSA, DIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCER nissa@suntimes.com | @NaderDIssa

In a newly published interview, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer says Trump once remarked “only the blacks could live like this” while driving through a “rougher” neighborho­od in Chicago.

Trump’s alleged comments were revealed in Michael Cohen’s interview with Vanity Fair in which Cohen recounted racist comments by Trump before he was elected.

The conversati­on in Chicago happened in the late 2000s, according to Cohen; at the time, the two men were traveling to Trump Internatio­nal Hotel and Tower for a board meeting.

On the way from the airport to the hotel, Cohen says they passed through “what looked like a rougher neighborho­od.”

Taking a look at the neighborho­od, according to Cohen, Trump said: “Only the blacks could live like this.” The interview didn’t mention which neighborho­od or what part of the city they were driving through.

Cohen also noted several other racist comments he says Trump made before he was elected.

In a discussion at Trump Tower in New York, Cohen says he told then-candidate Trump that the crowd at a recent campaign rally was largely white. In response, Trump allegedly said, “That’s because black people are too stupid to vote for me.”

During another conversati­on about the first season of “The Apprentice,” Cohen says Trump explained why he didn’t pick Kwame Jackson, a black investment manager who had graduated from Harvard, as his winner. “There’s no way I can let this black f--- win,” Trump said, according to Cohen.

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