Donald Trump

On October 15, 1973, DOJ sued Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump, and Trump Management, alleging Fair Housing Act violations including steering of Black applicants; a 1975 consent decree admitted no liability. In 1978 DOJ alleged the company was still denying apartments to Black people. On May 1, 1989, he paid for death-penalty ads after the Central Park jogger attack; five Black and Latino teenagers were later exonerated. From 2011 he promoted a false claim that Barack Obama, the first Black president, was not born in the United States. In January 2018 AP and NBC reported he described Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries”; he later denied using that word.

• Fair Housing Act complaint
  October 1973: DOJ Fair Housing Act suit over alleged anti-Black rentalsThe Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse records that on October 15, 1973, the Justice Department filed United States v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump, and Trump Management, Inc., No. 1:73-01529 (E.D.N.Y.), alleging systemic Fair Housing Act violations in 39 buildings with more than 14,000 apartments. The complaint, as summarized there, included Black and white testers (white testers told of vacancies; Black testers not, or steered) and alleged codes marking Black applicants. PolitiFact, rating a 2016 debate claim True, said the government alleged Black people were told nothing was available when apartments were open, and that Trump called the claims “absolutely ridiculous” in contemporaneous New York Times coverage. Those are the United States’ allegations. Trump denied them.Source: Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse ↗
• Contemporaneous press
  October 16, 1973: New York Times report on the anti-Black bias suitThe New York Times archived a contemporaneous report that the United States had accused a major landlord of anti-Black bias in New York City rental housing. PolitiFact, citing that coverage, recorded Trump calling the government’s claims “absolutely ridiculous.” The Times piece is contemporaneous reporting of the Justice Department’s allegations, not a trial verdict.Source: The New York Times ↗
• Paid advocacy ads
  May 1, 1989: paid ads seeking the death penalty after the Central Park attackThe New York Times reported on May 1, 1989, that Donald Trump placed full-page advertisements in four New York newspapers, titled “Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!,” after the April 19 Central Park jogger attack. The Times reported the May 1, 1989, buy as full-page ads in four New York newspapers. A June 18, 2019, Times report recorded that the five Black and Latino teenagers later known as the Central Park Five were wrongly convicted and later exonerated, and that Trump would not apologize for the 1989 comments. The ads are his paid advocacy. They are not a criminal conviction of Trump, and they are not a court finding that the five were guilty; their convictions were vacated.Source: NBC News ↗
• DOJ follow-on allegations
  1978: DOJ alleged the housing decree was still being violatedA New York Times reconstruction of the Trump Management fair-housing case, reprinted in a 2024 House hearing record, says that a few years after the 1975 consent decree the government accused the Trumps of violating it. The piece quotes a Justice Department lawyer writing to Roy Cohn in 1978 that “an underlying pattern of discrimination continues to exist in the Trump Management organization.” Those are the United States’ later allegations. They are not a second jury verdict.Source: The New York Times (House reprint) ↗
• Political rhetoric (not a court finding)
  2011–16: birther campaign against Barack ObamaAP reported that after five years as the chief promoter of a lie about Barack Obama’s birthplace, Trump on September 16, 2016 acknowledged that Obama was born in the United States, then falsely claimed Hillary Clinton started the controversy. AP recorded that Obama, the first African-American president, had released his long-form birth certificate in 2011 and that Trump continued to raise doubts afterward. Clinton called it a racist conspiracy aimed at the first African-American president. This is political rhetoric, not a court finding.Source: Associated Press ↗
• Reported statement (later disputed)
  January 2018: reported “shithole countries” remarks about Haiti and AfricaAP reported that on January 11, 2018, in an Oval Office meeting, Trump questioned why the U.S. would accept immigrants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa rather than places like Norway, according to people briefed on the conversation. NBC News reported the same remarks and said the White House issued a statement that did not deny them; NBC also recorded Trump later tweeting that the language used was “tough” but “this was not the language used.” These are reported statements about African nations and Haiti, not a court finding.Source: Associated Press ↗