Trump Jr. says his father's pictures with famous black people are proof he's not racist

Donald Trump Jr., President Trump’s son, recently defended his father against assertions of racism by noting that the president has taken a number of pictures with well-known African-American people.

In a recent interview with the Daily Caller, Trump Jr. was asked about “the left’s efforts to frame your dad” as a racist.

“I think it’s terrible…Certainly, racism exists but if it’s your response to any argument you can’t win, you actually do real disservice to those people actually afflicted by it,” he said.

He then attempted to close out his response by offering evidence against the claims that his father is racist, commenting, “I see, I know him (the president), I’ve seen him my whole life. I’ve seen the things he’s done. You know it’s amazing–all the rappers, all his African American friends, from Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, have pictures with him.”

However, a recently published op-ed in the New York Times provided what its authors called a “definitive list” of the now-president’s apparently racist comments and actions over time.

It dates back to the 1970s and notes that “Trump’s real-estate company tried to avoid renting apartments to African-Americans in the 1970s and gave preferential treatment to whites, according to the federal government.”

According to the Times piece, more recent examples include, Trump kicking off his presidential campaign by calling Mexicans “rapists,” his retweeting of white nationalists, and his reported suggestion that the U.S. accept more immigrants from Norway and fewer from “shithole countries” like those in Africa.