Donald Trump’s nephew has claimed the US presidential candidate used a highly-offensive racial slur in an early 1970s racist outburst.
In a book due to be published next week in the US but obtained earlier by The Guardian newspaper, Fred C Trump III claims his uncle used the racist N-word slur after his car was damaged.
In the book, All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way, he claims the former US President disgustedly said, “’N******. Look at what the n****** did,’” after his white Cadillac Eldorado car was damaged.
He wrote: “I knew that was a bad word,” adding that Mr Trump had not seen who had caused the damage but “instead went straight to the place where people’s minds sometimes go when they face a fresh affront. Across the racial divide”.
The incident is alleged to have taken place in the early 1970s at the house of Donald Trump’s parents in Queens, New York.
The presidential candidate has yet to comment on the claim.
He has denied previous rumours of using the racist slur during his time on the US version of The Apprentice, despite a Black contestant saying she has heard a tape of him saying the word.
The latest revelation could cause Mr Trump difficulties in the 2024 presidential race, with the 78-year-old due to face off against the Democrat’s Kamala Harris, the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected Vice President.
It comes as Republican leaders warned party members against using overtly racist and sexist attacks against Ms Harris less than four months before Election Day.
At a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Richard Hudson urged lawmakers to stick to criticising Harris for her role in Biden-Harris administration policies.
"This election will be about policies and not personalities," House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the meeting.
"This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris," he added, "and her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever."
