Donald Trump

Donal Trump is a candidate for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination. He announced his candidacy on June 16 and has not yet had to disclose his political donors. in his kickoff speech, Trump claimed he was worth 8.7 billion dollars. [[1]]

"I'm really rich," Trump said, adding that his confident attitude is what the country needs after having "losers" run the country.[[2]]

On Immigration

During his 2016 Presidential campaign annoucement, Trump said of Mexican immigrants "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best. They're not sending you, they're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they're telling us what we're getting." [[3]]

The comment led to an outcry by the Mexican community and has dominated the media's coverage of Trump's campaign thus far. But as Jeff Cohen, founder of the media watchdog group FAIR, points out, the mainstream media has not asked Trump the most important question. Cohen points out that in 1989 when a white, female investment banker was viciously raped and nearly murdered while jogging in Central Park, Trump took out a full page add advocating for the execution of those accused of the crime, five Black and Latino youths, aged 14 to 16, who turned out to be innocent. Cohen points to this incident as showing of Trump's previous history of racial intolerance writing, "A question journalists might pose to candidate Trump today, especially when he’s discussing the issue of rape: “Mr. Trump, are you a serial racist?”[[4]]

In 2011, FAIR ran a piece called "Ignoring Trump’s Record of Racism" again pointing to Trump's history of racist statements, writing "Salon‘s Justin Elliot traced Trump’s racism back to the 1970s, when the Justice Department repeatedly alleged racial discrimination by Trump Management Company, where Trump served as president. According to a New York Times report (10/16/73) about the federal case: '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.' After Trump agreed in a 1975 deal to integrate Trump properties, in 1978 the Justice Department charged Trump Management with failing to live up to the agreement. As Elliott reports, 'in 1983, a fair-housing activist cited statistics that two Trump Village developments had white majorities of at least 95 percent.'” (See New York Times, 10/16/83.)[[5]]