TRUMP

WHAT TRUMP STANDS FOR 85
been damaged by his 1980’s campaign against the “Central Park
Five,” black teenagers who were falsely accused of raping a white
female jogger. Trump had run a full-page newspaper at the time
of the original case calling for the reinstitution of the death penalty,
and reading “CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK
ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS!” “Muggers and murderers should be
forced to suffer,” he wrote. 335 (Usually even law-and-order types say
that muggers should “face justice” rather than “be forced to suffer.”)
Trump contributed to a “show trial” public atmosphere that helped
to convict the Five. Even after they were exonerated years later by
DNA evidence, and a report from the Manhattan attorney’s office
had confirmed that they almost certainly had no involvement whatsoever
in the crime, Trump remained firmly convinced of their guilt,
tweeting: “Tell me, what were they doing in the park, playing checkers?”
336 (As if there were zero innocuous explanations for a group of
black friends to be hanging out in a park at 9pm.)
One largely forgotten Trump racial incident arose from a conflict
with Native American casino owners. When Mohawk Indians
announced their intention to open a casino in the Catskills, Trump
went to war against them, funding a vicious ad campaign suggesting
that the community should fear the arrival of Mohawks. The ad said
that the casino would bring evils such as “increased crime, broken
families, bankruptcies and, in the case of the Mohawks, violence,” 337
and “featured a picture of cocaine lines and drug needles and listed
alleged abuses by the Mohawk Indian Nation, asking ‘Are these the
new neighbors we want?’” 338 A Mohawk lawyer called Trump’s ads
“about as racist as you can get,” 339 The New York State Commission
on Lobbying ultimately “fined Trump a record $250,000 and
ordered him to pay for a new round of ads to apologize.” 340
u u u u