Trump praises civil rights leader Jesse Jackson upon his death: ‘A good man’

President Trump called the Rev. Jesse Jackson a “force of nature” and spoke of their relationship Tuesday following the civil rights leader’s death at 84.

Mr. Trump said he knew Mr. Jackson “well, long before becoming president.”

“He was a good man, with lots of personality, grit, and ‘street smarts,’” he wrote on social media. “He was very gregarious — Someone who truly loved people! Despite the fact that I am falsely and consistently called a Racist by the Scoundrels and Lunatics on the Radical Left, Democrats ALL, it was always my pleasure to help Jesse along the way.” 

He said he provided him with office space in the late 1990s for his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, then in his first term as president passed criminal justice reform, long-term funding for historically Black colleges and universities, and Opportunity Zones, which are tax incentives to encourage investment in low-income communities, all of which had support from Mr. Jackson.

“Jesse was a force of nature like few others before him. He had much to do with the Election, without acknowledgment or credit, of Barack Hussein Obama, a man who Jesse could not stand,” the president wrote. “He loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences. Jesse will be missed!”

Santita Jackson, Mr. Jackson’s daughter, said her father died at home in Chicago surrounded by family. He had a rare neurological disorder.

“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement. “We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family.”

Mr. Trump and Mr. Jackson were photographed together several times throughout the years.

The office donation came in 1997, with Mr. Trump providing space at his New York City building at 40 Wall Street for Mr. Jackson’s Rainbow/ PUSH Coalition’s Wall Street Project, which aimed to pressure companies to hire minorities.

“He’s out there pushing for a lot of good things,” Mr. Trump said at the time, according to The New York Times.

A year later, Mr. Jackson jokingly called Mr. Trump “the most bashful and the most retreating and the most self-effacing” at a conference hosted by the Wall Street Project.

In a clip from another Wall Street Project conference in 1999, Mr. Jackson praised Mr. Trump, calling him a “friend.”

“One can miss his seriousness and his commitment, for his success is beyond argument,” Mr. Jackson said.

Mr. Jackson later spoke out against Mr. Trump’s presidency, saying in 2020 that “50 years of civil rights have been threatened,” while at a Women’s March in Washington.