The Slatest

“Laziness Is a Trait in Blacks,” 1991 Book Quotes Trump as Saying

Donald Trump appears by video Tuesday at the convention in Cleveland.

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

The Washington Post has a story Wednesday about Donald Trump’s standing with black Americans (summary: his standing is bad), which cites a crazy quote from a 1991 book written about Trump by former Trump Plaza casino COO John O’Donnell. Via Google Books, here’s the relevant excerpt:

Screenshot/Trumped! The Inside Story of the Real Donald Trump—His Cunning Rise and Spectacular Fall/via Google Books

This quote has been floating around the internet for a while, and it should be noted that this is O’Donnell’s recollection of what Trump said, not a direct quote in a news report or a transcript of a recording. On the other hand, this is Donald Trump we’re talking about, and in 1999 Trump told Playboy that “the stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true” when speaking about O’Donnell’s book generally.

O’Donnell has previously come up in news reports during the 2016 campaign for confirming to Yahoo that Trump knew Robert LiButti, a Mob-linked felon who was a Trump Plaza high-roller. The Trump Plaza was fined $200,000 in 1991 for instructing black employees not to go near LiButti, who was apparently known at the casino for berating women and people of color in slur-filled tirades.

Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.