Trumps Sign Consent Decree in DOJ Discrimination Case

The Settlement

In June 1975, Donald Trump, his father Fred Trump, and their company Trump Management Inc. signed a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve a civil rights lawsuit filed in October 1973. The federal government had accused the Trumps of violating the Fair Housing Act by systematically refusing to rent apartments to Black applicants across their portfolio of 39 buildings containing roughly 14,000 units in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.

Under the terms of the consent decree, the Trumps agreed to a series of remedial measures without admitting any wrongdoing. The agreement required them to advertise vacancies in minority-focused newspapers, provide the New York Urban League with a weekly list of apartment vacancies, and allow the Urban League to present qualified minority applicants for those openings.

Trump’s Response

The settlement marked one of the earliest public instances of Trump’s characteristic approach to legal trouble: fight aggressively, concede nothing on substance, and declare victory regardless of the outcome. Trump hired Roy Cohn, the infamous attorney who had served as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the anti-communist hearings of the 1950s, to handle the defense. Cohn filed a $100 million countersuit against the government, accusing the DOJ of making irresponsible statements.

Trump told the press that the settlement was a victory, emphasizing that the consent decree contained no admission of guilt. “We didn’t have to do anything,” he said at the time. “We just said we’d let them look at our vacancies.” In reality, the government had compiled extensive evidence, including testimony from undercover testers who documented that Black applicants were turned away from apartments that were simultaneously offered to white applicants.

Violations and Return to Court

The consent decree did not end the matter. In 1978, just three years after the agreement was signed, the Department of Justice returned to court alleging that the Trumps were violating the decree’s terms. The government presented evidence that Trump Management was still steering Black applicants away from predominantly white buildings and toward buildings with higher minority populations.

The case was eventually resolved with additional enforcement measures. But the original lawsuit and consent decree would follow Trump throughout his career, resurfacing during his presidential campaigns as evidence of a pattern of racial bias. Trump has consistently denied any discriminatory intent, characterizing the government’s case as overreach and the settlement as a routine business decision with no significance.