Before Trump Became a 'Racist'

Larry Elder
Wed, 12 Nov 2025 13:25:32 -0800
Opinion

Trump Derangement Syndrome prevents those who dislike President Donald Trump from giving him credit for virtually anything.

In the first nine months of Trump 2.0, his detractors fail to credit him for: securing the southern border in a matter of weeks; gas prices now at a four-year low; the steep decline in the price of eggs; a stock market hitting record highs, benefiting the nearly half of American adults who invest in the market either directly, via mutual funds or through 401(k)s; income growth exceeding inflation; inflation at 3%, less than the 5% per year average under Biden/Harris; pressuring our NATO partners into increasing their financial commitment when failure to do so provoked complaints by former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush; orchestrating the release of remaining hostages and remains of those seized by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023; the successful bombings of three of Iran's nuclear facilities; a reduction in crime in Washington, D.C., and in other cities through the deployment or the threat of deployment of the National Guard — and the arrests of violent criminal aliens, causing a reduction in gang-related criminal activity; and other foreign and domestic achievements.

"Those things do not matter to me," said an angry caller to my radio/TV show. "Trump is a bad person. He is a racist who wouldn't rent to people who look like you."
Updated: Thu Nov 13, 2025

Trump Derangement Syndrome prevents those who dislike President Donald Trump from giving him credit for virtually anything.

In the first nine months of Trump 2.0, his detractors fail to credit him for: securing the southern border in a matter of weeks; gas prices now at a four-year low; the steep decline in the price of eggs; a stock market hitting record highs, benefiting the nearly half of American adults who invest in the market either directly, via mutual funds or through 401(k)s; income growth exceeding inflation; inflation at 3%, less than the 5% per year average under Biden/Harris; pressuring our NATO partners into increasing their financial commitment when failure to do so provoked complaints by former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush; orchestrating the release of remaining hostages and remains of those seized by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023; the successful bombings of three of Iran's nuclear facilities; a reduction in crime in Washington, D.C., and in other cities through the deployment or the threat of deployment of the National Guard — and the arrests of violent criminal aliens, causing a reduction in gang-related criminal activity; and other foreign and domestic achievements.

"Those things do not matter to me," said an angry caller to my radio/TV show. "Trump is a bad person. He is a racist who wouldn't rent to people who look like you."

"Did you vote for Joe Biden?" I asked.

"Yes, but what difference does that make?"

This difference is hypocrisy, selective outrage and double standards.

Biden lied for over 50 years about his alleged civil rights record. No, he did not engage in desegregating movie theaters and restaurants. No, he was not arrested attempting to visit an imprisoned Nelson Mandela during apartheid South Africa. No, he was not "raised in the black church." If being a "racist" is bad, where does one rank lying about not being one?

For decades, Biden, elected to the Senate in 1972, bragged about his ability to "get things done" with the segregationists in his party. Biden opposed court-ordered busing — as did many blacks and whites — to achieve integration. But note how Biden, at a 1977 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, framed his opposition: "Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions having built so high that it is going to explode at some point."

In 2010, Biden called Sen. Robert Byrd, a former Exalted Cyclops member in the Ku Klux Klan who had recently died, "one of my mentors" and said, "the Senate is a lesser place for his going." About his working relationship with another Southern Democrat racist, Biden said: "I was in a caucus with (Mississippi Sen.) James O. Eastland. He never called me 'boy,' he always called me 'son.'"

Well, glory be!

It wasn't until 2019, during his third campaign for president, that Biden apologized for touting his good graces with his party's racist senators.

As for Trump, the caller referred to the consent decree the Trump Organization agreed to in 1975 — when Trump was in his 20s — with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice over allegations of refusing to rent to black would-be renters. The decree did not admit liability, but the Trump Organization — then headed by Trump's father — agreed to change practices. In his 1987 book "The Art of the Deal," Trump said, "What we didn't do was rent to welfare cases, white or black."

Over 20 years after the consent decree, the Rev. Jesse Jackson praised Trump in a 1998 Rainbow Push Coalition event as a "friend" who supported "the under-served communities." Jackson said, "When we opened this Wall Street project ... (Trump) gave us space at 40 Wall Street, which was to make a statement about our having a presence there."

The following year, at another coalition event, Jackson said to Trump, "We need your building skills, your gusto ... for the people on Wall Street to represent diversity."

There you have it, Trump is a racist. The 1975 consent decree stands as Exhibit A.

As for Biden, CNN's Van Jones, who attributed Trump's 2016 victory to "whitelash," tearfully said after Biden dropped out of the 2024 race, "I just know that I love this man, I care about this man."