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INDEPENDENT JOURNAL REVIEW

‘Racist’ Trump Not Only Supported Desegregation, He Did Something About It in Palm Beach

BY MIKE MILLER

Getty – Evan Agostini

Among the ‘favorite’ names Democrats like to call Donald Trump are “bigot” and “racist.” He’s been viciously attacked over support he’s gotten from white supremacist groups — as if he (or any presidential candidate) has control over who supports him and who does not.

To hear Democrats talk, Trump might as well be the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

There’s only one ‘problem.’ According to the Wall Street Journal and Anti-Defamation League, Donald J. Trump is largely responsible for desegregating Florida’s exclusive country clubs.

Image Credit; Evan Agostini/Getty Images

As reported by The Daily Caller, the story dates back to 1995 when Trump opened Palm Beach’s Mar-a-Lago Club.

Palm Beach had only agreed to Trump’s plan after placing “restrictions on the club, such as allowing no more than 500 members, to allay residents’ fears about traffic congestion and noise,” the Wall Street Journal’s Jacqueline Bueno reported in 1997.

Palm Beach Society magazine publisher James Sheeran explained the restrictions, saying that “young monied guys” like Trump were, in effect, polluting Palm Beach:

“This was a very graceful senior-citizen market. It was nice, clean people. Now, you have a lot of junk-bond money. The quality of the money is not pure.”

To the surprise of no one (either past or present) Trump wouldn’t take no for an answer. As the Wall Street Journal reported in 1997, in part:

The culture clash began to approach a climax last fall, when Mr. Trump’s lawyer sent members of the town council a copy of the film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” a film that deals with upper-class racism.

Mr. Trump then approached the town council about lifting the restrictions that had been placed on the club. He also asked some council members not to vote on the request because their membership in other clubs created a conflict of interest.

Last December, after the council refused to lift the restrictions, Mr. Trump filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Palm Beach, alleging that the town was discriminating against Mar-a-Lago, in part because it is open to Jews and African-Americans. The suit seeks $100 million in damages.

Palm Beach and competing country clubs denied Trump’s charge, which he later retracted, but the fact remained: Mar-a-Lago was open to Jews and African Americans, while most exclusive Palm Beach country clubs were not.

Image Credit: Evan Agostini/Getty Images

Then-ADL National Director Abraham Foxman praised Trump at the time for his actions:

“He put the light on Palm Beach. Not on the beauty and the glitter, but on its seamier side of discrimination. It has an impact.”

None of this matters a bit, of course, to those who will continue to call Trump a bigot, a racist, or worse. After all, there’s an election to be won — and there are votes to secure.