Trump uses an old tactic: use the race to win

Over the years, Mr. Trump has diverted critics by citing friendships with black celebrities. In the 1980s, he became a regular at the ring in Atlantic City, becoming friends with boxing legends Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson and promoter Don King. He briefly owned a team from the United States Football League, which earned him a friendship with his star player, Herschel Walker.

As the hip-hop industry flourished in the 1990s and 2000s, rappers often used Mr. Trump's name in lyrics to symbolize richness and flash. Along the way, he became friends with Sean Combs, Snoop Dogg and Russell Simmons.

Mr. Trump has boasted of mentioning his name in rap videos, asking one of the secretaries to find examples on YouTube and broadcast them for guests. "Blacks love me," he says proudly.

In 2015, presidential candidate, he stopped using "the" before describing ethnic groups. While some black celebrities were alongside Mr. Trump, other relationships have deteriorated because of his politics. Mr. Simmons, in an open letter that year, told his friend, now a foreigner, to "stop feeding hate hearths."

"It's just politics"

Mr. Trump's campaign was founded on the birth of the first African-American president. For Ms. Manigault Newman, a conversation she had with Mr. Trump about the "Birther" campaign during a break in the recording of "The Apprentice" was the first time that She saw him openly racially.

"He's boasting about it," she said in an interview. "I asked him," Why would you do that? ", He added." This is only politics. That's what happens in politics, you do opposition research. "

And yet, like others in Mr. Trump's orbit, Ms. Manigault Newman did not find it so unpleasant that she broke up with him at the time. She talked about what she saw as Mr. Trump's racism only after following him to the White House and firing him.