About 1,000 members and associates of the KKK stage a violent “free-for-all” against a hundred law enforcement officers during a rally in Queens. 21-year-old Fred Trump is in the crowd, and he’s not with the police.
Trump and six other men, all in klansmen robes, are arrested during or after the rally, which was advertised as a response to Protestant Americans being attacked by the Roman Catholic police.
Trump manages to escape charges. This leads some to speculate that, despite the reports of all seven men wearing robes, Trump might have been a spectator and not a actually involved in the rally or fight.
It’s also possible Trump paid his way out of trouble. His father, Frederick, left his mother Elizabeth and him considerable wealth when he passed in 1918. Just a month before the protest, the mother-son duo registered their joint company, E. Trump & Son. The company is later renamed The Trump Organization.
In future years, Donald Trump claims that his father was never involved with the KKK, was never arrested at the march, and never lived at the Devonshire Road address belonging to the “Fred Trump” that was arrested that day. At least one of his claims is a proven lie.
According to at least one archived newspaper clip, Fred Trump also lived at 175-24 Devonshire Road: A wedding announcement in the January 22, 1936 issue of the Long Island Daily Press, places Fred Trump at that address, and refers to his wife as “Mary MacLeod,” which is Donald Trump’s mother’s maiden name.
Moreover, three additional newspaper clips unearthed by VICE contain separate accounts of Fred Trump’s arrest at the May 1927 KKK rally in Queens, each of which seems to confirm the Times account of the events that day. While the clips don’t confirm whether Fred Trump was actually a member of the Klan, they do suggest that the rally—and the subsequent arrests—did happen, and did involve Donald Trump’s father, contrary to the candidate’s denials.
Vice
External Sources
Vice (Archived)
Politifact (Archived)
Elizabeth Christ Trump, Archived
Photo: Public Domain