This archive report was first published on 21 July 2019.
On the campaign trail in 2015, Donald Trump's rhetoric on race began to shift. He stopped using the word 'the' before describing ethnic groups, a subtle but significant change. This marked a departure from his earlier years, when he would often boast about his friendships with black celebrities.
Trump's friendships with figures like Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, and Don King in the 1980s were well-documented. He even briefly owned a United States Football League team, leading to a friendship with its star player, Herschel Walker. As the hip-hop industry flourished in the 1990s and 2000s, rappers often name-dropped Trump in their lyrics, symbolizing wealth and flash.
Trump would often play these rap videos for guests, proudly declaring, 'The blacks love me.' However, by 2015, many of these relationships had soured due to his politics. Russell Simmons, in an open letter that year, told his estranged friend to 'stop fueling fires of hate.'
Trump's campaign was built on questioning the birth of the first African-American president, a tactic that his former aide, Omarosa Manigault Newman, described as overtly racial. In an interview, she recalled a conversation with Trump about the 'birther' campaign, during which he boasted about it, saying, 'This is just politics. This is what happens in politics, you do opposition research.'
Manigault Newman did not speak out against Trump's racism at the time, but she later broke with him after being fired from the White House.
