*The Washington Post reported Wednesday that President Trump allegedly said privately to senior officials that a lack of initiative, rather than racism, had prevented Black Americans from progress in the United States.
The Post story, which sourced two dozen current and former U.S. officials, put remarks Trump made in private in the context of other derogatory remarks it said he privately made about other groups, including Hispanics and Jewish Americans. The Post said many of the officials spoke candidly on the condition of anonymity because they said they feared retribution.
Officials said that in one instance, Trump said following phone calls with Jewish lawmakers that Jews “are only in it for themselves” and “stick together” in an ethnic alliance. In response to first lady Melania Trump’s planned 2018 trip to Africa, the president reportedly said he “could never understand why she would want to go there.” According to a former senior White House official who spoke to the Post, Trump responded to staffers who challenged him on his views by saying, “No one loves Black people more than me.”
The White House responded to the Post story in a statement from White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews.
“Donald Trump’s record as a private citizen and as president has been one of fighting for inclusion and advocating for the equal treatment of all,” Matthews told the Post. “Anyone who suggests otherwise is only seeking to sow division.”
The article comes a day after Trump announced that he was extending his administration’s ban on race- and sex-based discrimination training for federal agency employees by including federal contractors as well.
Below, the YouTube show The Young Turks discuss Trump’s comments about Black people in Bob Woodward’s interview tapes for his new book “Rage.”
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