As the 2016 election continues heating up, we continue to learn more about presidential hopefuls. Unfortunately, one of those hopefuls is Donald Trump, who is now expected to win the Republican Party nomination and square off against the Democratic nominee.
If Trump becomes GOP nominee, it’s only fair that his background be thoroughly investigated. A review of Trump’s childhood as he was raised by his father reveals quite a bit about the Trump family ethos.
Frederick Christ Trump, the patriarch of the Trump family, served as the poster child for white male privilege in 1930s America. At the tender age of 22, Fred started the real estate business that his son Donald would later inherit. But wealth wasn’t the only thing Fred instilled into his son. Fred was known as a bigot and racist, all-in-all just a horrible person.
Like Donald, Fred’s legacy shows he’s just as terrible (if not worse), and here’s why.
1. He was a hypocrite
Fred was born in 1905 to Frederick Trump and Elizabeth Christ — two immigrants. Both parents were born in Germany, and ultimately immigrated to the US. In 1936, Fred Jr. married Mary Anne MacLeod, a Scottish immigrant who met her husband during a trip to New York.
And yet…
2. He was a huge racist
When Fred began building his real estate empire, he primarily built properties in Brooklyn and Queens. Many of his properties included low-income, affordable apartments.
The catch: he only leased the properties to white applicants.
3. Woody Guthrie hated him
Confirming Trump’s applicant bias was one of Trump’s white tenants: famed folk musician Woody Guthrie. Guthrie penned “Old Man Trump,” a song which accused Trump of stirring up “racial hate…when he drawed / that color line / here at his / eighteen hundred family project.”
4. He likely supported the KKK
Further proof of Woodie’s sentiment was witnessed in September 1927, when seven men were arrested at a KKK rally in New York. One of those men: Fred Trump.
4. The US Department of Justice sued him
Nearly 30 years after his KKK arrest, Fred was sued by the US Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Under the Urban League, white and black applicants visited Trump’s apartments. Unsurprisingly, white applicants became tenants, while blacks remained applicants.
Fred ultimately negotiated a deal, and began advertising vacancies with the Urban League and minority newspapers.
5. TL;DR?
Like father, like son.
Image via: Rolling Stone
Featured image via: Newsmax
