The Story of Why Woody Guthrie Hated Donald Trump’s Dad
What’s not there in the beautiful imagery of his song “This Land Is Your Land” – the ribbon of highway, the endless skyway, the diamond deserts – is right there in the slogan often affixed to his guitar: “This machine kills fascists.”
But artists who traffic in grand themes are also allowed to get specific. In one of the strangest stories yet to emerge from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, it appears that, more than half a century ago, Woody Guthrie penned lyrics condemning the candidate’s father, Fred Trump, for racism.
“Donald did inherit his father’s racism, and was probably actively coached in his father’s racism, and worked with his father to perpetuate it,” argued Will Kaufman, the professor of American literature and culture at Britain’s University of Central Lancashire who unearthed the scoop, said in a telephone interview with The Washington Post. “He picked up the mantle and ran with it with his father at his side. That’s why people are interested in this I think.”
Trump has been repeatedly accused of racism after his comments about Mexicans and has repeatedly denied such charges.
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