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The best (and worst) thing about the cult of Trumpism is that any deviation from the officially prescribed adoration is cause for ostracism. Trumpism cannot accept dissenting views from its supporters and will countenance no accountability for the dear leader. What is good is what is Trump; and whatever Trump is, is by definition good.
Jack O’Donnell is the former president of Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino.
On Wednesday, the day after a midterm cycle dominated by President Trump’s divisive fear-mongering about immigrants invading our country, I listened as he told another of the lies for which has become so notorious. During his White House news conference he said, “I’ve never used racist remarks.”
I know the real Trump better than most. For 3˝ years, I worked in almost daily contact with him at the highest levels of the Atlantic City casino empire over which he once held sway. I saw him treat black people and minorities as inferior. I heard him say vulgar, bigoted things and I rebuked him for them. But he did not quit. Indeed, he has continued it to this day.
Others who have known him, including his son Eric and former football player Herschel Walker insist he is not a racist. But I don’t see how anyone who has watched him across the 40 or so years could conclude otherwise. After all, he has been so public about it.
We can go back to the start of his career in the early 1970s and the outrage he expressed when Trump and his father were charged by the federal government with discriminating against African-Americans in the rental housing they owned in New York City. Trump’s response was to hire Roy Cohn, who then countersued, calling the Justice Department attorneys “storm troopers” and “Gestapo.” The Trumps ultimately agreed to integrate their buildings, but the Justice Department acknowledged they never really complied. Because they didn’t want to. As Donald saw it, and I remember him voicing a version of this idea within the inner circle of his executives on several occasions: “Blacks don’t want to live with whites, so why isn’t it OK for whites not to want to live with blacks?” I know that in similar fashion he despised the affirmative action guidelines (50 percent female and 30 percent minority at every level) we were required to implement to maintain our gaming license. He would say it was not realistic and a waste of money to train people who did not have the ability.
I recall one busy Saturday night, walking the casino floor with him, when he saw what he considered an inordinate number of black customers. “It’s looking a little dark in here,” he calmly stated. It was his way of telling me to limit our charter bus programs in urban neighborhoods. I ignored him and continued to run the business in the best interest of Donald, the bondholders and the employees.
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