Throughout his career in real-estate, television, semi-professional football, casinos, beauty pageants and whatever else Donald Trump has made money from, the presidential candidate has managed to accrue a deep bench of high-profile friends. To "The Donald," this would warrant a fairly simple explanation: "Everybody loves me." However, this kinship seems to have become a nuisance, if not an outright embarrassment, for some minority acquaintances of Trump's that have distanced themselves from the Republican frontrunner. It appears a handful of African-American celebrities, like Russell Simmons, are backing away from friendships with the influential businessman.
According to The New York Times, Simmons and Trump used to be quite close, with the latter teasing the former over his divorce and inviting him to his home. Simmons said of Trump, "He was a good host, that's for sure. You'd be in the steam room and he'd come in, fully clothed, and say, 'You guys O.K. in there?' Just a nice guy."
However, Simmons recently penned an open letter to Trump denouncing his campaign and calling him his "old friend." In the letter, Simmons wrote, "My friends, both Muslims and Jews, are saying there are so many comparisons between your rap and [Adolph] Hitler's, and I cannot disagree with them, Donald. You can't possibly want your kids or your wife Melania [Trump] (all of whom I know and respect) to live with that. You are a born leader, who is set to possibly win the nomination of your party, but don't compromise what I know is in your heart to do it. You are a generous, kind man who has built a career on negotiating deals where everybody wins. Now, you seem like a one-man wrecking ball willing to destroy our nation's foundation of freedom."
Trump's rhetoric has also earned him the ire of once-acquaintance Reverend Al Sharpton. Sharpton told The New York Times, "Black celebrities and luminaries live in a world that is much more engaging of Trump, and parallel with Trump's world, than those of us that have been in politics and civil rights on the ground for as long as Trump has been out there," and added that Trump did not understand the lives of the majority of African-Americans.
