Trump: "I want to hate"
- On This Day In The Trump Administration
- Jun 6, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 6, 2024
June 6: On This Day In 2018
He admits it: One of Trump’s most memorable pre-presidency stunts was taking out full page ads in New York newspapers headlined: “Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!” This was his public way of responding to the notorious Central Park 5 incident, in which five Black teenagers were wrongly convicted in 1990 of raping a jogger.
The problem here isn’t Trump’s love of the death penalty; reasonable minds can disagree on that. But OTDI 2018, New York Times columnist Charles Blow used this incident to show how Trump’s default hatred drives much of what the man does; it shows up in his hateful policies towards Blacks, women, other religions, immigrants, etc. He quotes from Trump’s original ad:
“... I want to hate these murderers and I always will. I am not looking to psychoanalyze or understand them, I am looking to punish them….Mayor Koch has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts. I do not think so.”
Thirteen years after their conviction, DNA evidence cleared all five of the boys, and the actual rapist stepped forward with a confession. Amidst great fanfare, they were freed. Amazingly, though…Trump refused to accept reality, “doubling down” on his earlier stance. “Try listening to the facts” he begged, even though his preferred version of “the facts” was definitively proven to be wrong.
As filmmaker Sarah Burns noted: “Donald J. Trump rarely apologizes. When it comes to the case of the Central Park Five, he has never even come close….Why the continued belief in the guilt of the Central Park Five, despite all the evidence to the contrary? Race and racism surely play their role.”
Blow continued: “When Trump feels what he believes is a righteous indignation, his default position is hatred. Anyone who draws his ire, anyone whom he feels attacked by or offended by, anyone who has the nerve to stand up for himself or herself and tell him he’s wrong, he wants to hate, and does so.”
Ironic, isn’t it? When Donald Trump was found liable for sexually assaulting a woman (and raping her, as the judge described it), he loudly complained that the trial was flawed. But in the case of these five Black boys, even though the evidence later proved overwhelming, he continued to loudly complain that the original trial had been flawless.
A racist bone in his body?: Trump frequently says he’s the least racist person you’ve ever met. But as far back as the 1970s, Donald and the Trump Family were sued by the United States Department of Justice for alleged racial discrimination.
Dive Deeper
Central Park's Gate of the Exonerated was named in honor of the five boys. This pic is by Jay Dobkin - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
Read Blow’s original column to understand the context of Trump’s hatred
Vox offers a look at Trump’s racism over the years
Sarah Burns outlined the history of Trump’s involvement in the rape case
On This Day In The Trump Administration: Trump says: "I want to hate"