Donald Trump’s father Fred ‘tried to stop black people renting his properties’, FBI dossier claims

Donald Trump with his father Fred in 1994
David Gardner16 February 2017

The FBI has released a shocking dossier detailing a probe into whether President Donald Trump’s father racially discriminated against black families living in rental properties he owned.

The 389-page file includes interviews about Mr Trump’s father, Fred, with former associates who claimed he made it harder for minorities to rent from the Trump Management Company.

One former employee explained how the president’s father allegedly “wanted to get rid of the blacks that were in the building”.

“I asked Fred Trump what his policy was regarding minorities and he said it was absolutely against the law to discriminate,” the interview transcript says, before the interviewee performed an about-face.

“At a later date during my two weeks at Tysens Park, Fred Trump told me not to rent to blacks. He also wanted me to get rid of the blacks that were in the building by telling them cheap housing was available for them at only $500 down payment, which Trump would offer to pay himself.

New claims: Donald Trump
Getty

“Trump didn’t tell me where this housing was located. He advised me not to rent to persons on welfare.”

Another man interviewed in the probe, which lasted from 1972 to 1974, worked as a doorman at a Trump building in Brooklyn in 1974.

The man said a supervisor “told me that if a black person came to 2650 Ocean Parkway and inquired about an apartment for rent, and he, that is [redacted] was not there at the time, that I should tell him that the rent was twice as much as it really was, in order that he could not afford the apartment.”

Fred Trump, a multi-millionaire property developer who died in 1999, denied any race-related bias took place in his family.

The revelation is yet another controversy in a chaotic week for President Trump. Hours earlier yesterday, he lost another key member of his Cabinet team when Andrew Puzder withdrew his Labour Secretary nomination.

Mr Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr fast food chains, quit following allegations that he hired an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper. The move also followed the emergence of a 1990 interview with his wife on the Oprah Winfrey Show in which she alleged she was the victim of domestic abuse. She later withdrew the claims.

TV adverts run by Mr Puzder’s restaurant chains that featured scantily-clad women eating hamburgers were also lambasted by critics.

Coming just two days after Mr Trump’s pick for national security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to quit in disgrace over his ties to Russia, this latest embarrassment illustrated the widening gulf between the White House and Capitol Hill.

That conflict is likely to be exacerbated by the growing bipartisan support for expanded investigations into alleged ties between Mr Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian spies during the election battle.

In typical style, the president dismissed claims of “constant” contact between his high-level campaign aides and Russia’s intelligence service, calling the reports “Russian connection non-sense” and saying the information was “illegally leaked”.

Donald Trump praised Michael Flynn, pictured
Win McNamee/Getty Images

Mr Trump also praised Mr Flynn less than 48 hours after his resignation and tried to pin blame for his ousting on the media.

“Michael Flynn — General Flynn — is a wonderful man,” said the president. “I think he’s been treated very, very unfairly by the media — as I call it, the fake media, in many cases — and I think it’s a really sad thing that he was treated so badly.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called for a Capitol probe into the allegations involving the Trump campaign’s reported communications with Moscow. “It’s time for us to look into all things related to Russia’s involvement in 2016,” he said.

“Let’s get everything out as quickly as possible on this Russia issue,” Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker added. “Maybe there’s a problem that obviously goes much deeper than what we now suspect.

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