Topline
Former President Donald Trump’s nephew, Fred Trump III, reportedly claims in his new book set to publish next week that he heard his uncle use the N-word in the 1970s—as Trump is set to challenge the first Black woman to top a major party’s presidential ticket.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally with US Senator and vice presidential … [+]
AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
Trump III writes that Trump used the slur in the early 1970s while raging about damage to his Cadillac convertible outside the home of Trump’s parents in Queens, according to an excerpt published Wednesday in The Guardian: “‘N*****s,’ I recall him saying disgustedly. ‘Look what the n*****s did.’”
Trump was “pissed” when he saw the gashes to his convertible top, and his mind “then went straight to the place where people’s minds sometimes go when they face a fresh affront. Across the racial divide,” Trump III reportedly writes.
Trump III—who, along with his sister, Mary Trump, filed a lawsuit accusing the former president and his siblings of cutting them out of their grandfather’s will after his death in 1999—reportedly made the claim in his new book, “All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way,” set to publish in the U.S. on July 30.
The book “shines a light into the darker corners of the Trump empire,” according to a summary on publisher Simon and Schuster’s website.
Trump’s campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung firmly denied the claims, calling them “completely fabricated and total fake news of the highest order,” in a statement to The Daily Beast, adding “anyone who knows President Trump knows he would never use such language, and false stories like this have been thoroughly debunked.”
What To Watch For
The book is set to be released just weeks after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid in a seismic shift in the presidential race. Trump is all but certain to face Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s nominee, as the majority of delegates have pledged to support her and are expected to officially vote to formalize the Democratic ticket during the first week of August.
Tangent
Mary Trump, has been a vocal critic of her uncle and published her own book, “Too Much and Never Enough,” also with Simon and Schuster, in which she accuses her uncle of being “clearly racist.” She’s set to release another memoir this year about the life of her father, Fred Trump Jr., Trump’s older brother who died of a heart attack related to his alcoholism at the age of 42.
Key Background
Trump has repeatedly been accused of using the N-word on set of “The Apprentice.” A former producer, Bill Pruitt, was the latest to make the claims in a Slate exposé published in May after his nondisclosure agreement expired. Pruitt said he witnessed Trump question whether America would “buy a n— winning” when discussing a Black finalist, Kwame Jackson, during the first season of the show in 2004. Jackson’s fellow contestant, Omarosa Manigault Newman, has also said she heard tapes of Trump using the racial slur to refer to Jackson “multiple times” during the show’s filming, though the alleged tapes have never surfaced. Trump has vehemently denied the accusations.
Further Reading
Trump Used N-Word, ‘Apprentice’ Producer Says—Biden Calls Foe Racist (Forbes)
2022 midterms, 2024 presidential campaign, the January 6 House committee investigation, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster, the 2023 State of the Union Address, former President Donald Trump’s federal election interference and classified documents cases and his Manhattan hush money case. Dorn graduated in 2012 from the University of Dayton with a degree in journalism. Prior to joining Forbes, she covered New York City and state politics for the New York Post and City and State magazine. Follow her for updates and analysis on the 2024 presidential race, key Senate and House races and developments in Congress and at the White House.
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