Bob Jackson: In Trump’s case, it’s like father, like son
What do we know about Donald Trump? He presents himself as a self-made man and an admirer of his maker. The reality is his father, Fredrick Trump, was worth $300 million to $400 million at his death in 1999. Donald and his siblings inherited that wealth. What do we know about Fredrick Trump?
In 1927, in Queens, N.Y., 21-year-old Fred Trump was arrested as he attended a Ku Klux Klan rally. About 1,000 Klansmen were involved in a riot with a hundred NYC police. The riot was started as the police gave permission for the Klan to march in the Memorial Day parade but without their white sheets. Trump was arrested but never charged. The KKK of Queens was concerned that Roman Catholic and Jewish immigrants who arrived in NYC in large numbers from Southern and Eastern Europe after WWI and into the 1920s were undesirable.
Fred Trump built apartments in Queens and violated Federal laws prohibiting discrimination in housing. Donald Trump followed his father by castigating Mexico immigrants, the Chinese and now Muslims, making statements about closing mosques and a creating a database for Americans Muslims.
Bob Jackson, Modesto
This story was originally published November 30, 2015 at 2:01 PM with the headline "Bob Jackson: In Trump’s case, it’s like father, like son."