A certain young, rich, up-and-coming real estate mogul was interviewed by The New York Times in 1976, and this is the way the article described Donald Trump back then:
“He is tall, lean and blond, with dazzling white teeth, and he looks ever so much like Robert Redford. He rides around town in a chauffeured silver Cadillac with his initials, DJT, on the plates. He dates slinky fashion models, belongs to the most elegant clubs and, at only 30 years of age, estimates that he is worth ‘more than $200 million.’ ”
But the New York Times Insider, which looked at Trump’s 42 year in the newspaper, found less flattering articles which described Donald Trump and his real estate business as being racist back then.
In 1973, Trump was 27 years old and the president of the Trump Management Corporation, which owned more than 14,000 apartments in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
On the front page of The New York Times, Oct. 16, 1973, the headlines read “Major Landlord Accused of Antiblack Bias in City.”
The Department of Justice had brought a federal suit against Mr. Trump and his father, Fred C. Trump. The charges were violations of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 in the operation of 39 buildings. The article reported:
“The government contended that Trump Management had refused to rent or negotiate rentals ‘because of race and color’ […] It also charged that the company had required different rental terms and conditions because of race and that it had misrepresented to blacks that apartments were not available.”
Donald Trump’s response was asserting his innocence:
“They are absolutely ridiculous.We have never discriminated, and we never would. There have been a number of local actions against us, and we’ve won them all.”
A number of local actions? Two months later, Trump Management turned around and sued the United States government for $100 million, claiming the charges to be irresponsible and baseless:
“Mr. Trump accused the Justice Department of singling out his corporation because it was a large one, and because the government was trying to force it to rent to welfare recipients,” The Times reported.
Finally, an agreement was reached in June 1975, where Trump Management was required to furnish the New York Urban League with a list of all apartment vacancies, every week, for two years. It was also to allow the league to present qualified applicants for every fifth vacancy in Trump buildings where fewer than 10 percent of the tenants were black. The New York Times reported that:
“Trump promised not to discriminate against blacks, Puerto Ricans and other minorities.”
Trump Management, however, noted that the agreement did not constitute an admission of guilt.
Sadly, this may mean Donald Trump’s dazzling white teeth and Robert Redford good looks was just hiding a racist soul all along.
Featured image: Donald Trump on “Oprah” circa 1988. Facebook/ROCK-SOLID.
