Donald Trump was “elected” with the help of people like the KKK, who said that Trump represent the type of things they believed in. And since his “election,” Trump has put in power numerous people of questionable racial beliefs. Among these people is Trump’s new adviser, Reed Cordish, an executive of the Cordish Companies and being sued for hiring white men to beat up black people.
On Wednesday, Trump tapped Reed Cordish as assistant to the president for intergovernmental and technology initiatives. Cordish is an executive of the Cordish Companies, his family’s Baltimore-based real-estate business, and the president of Entertainment Concepts Investors, a subsidiary that owns and manages bars, restaurants, and clubs throughout the U.S.
ECI’s largest holdings are in Kansas City, Missouri, where Cordish partnered with Trump son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner on a building in the city’s Power and Light District.
But the Power and Light District, a half-million-square-foot downtown shopping and entertainment center, has a dark reputation among the city’s black community. Two separate lawsuits against the companies say the area is commonly referred to as the “Power and White District” for its owner’s alleged record of racial discrimination.
In 2014, Dante Combs and Adam Williams sued as the lead plaintiffs in a $5 million class-action racial-discrimination case. Cordish’s business won an initial ruling in a federal district court, but Combs and Williams are appealing the decision.
The two plaintiffs say they were beaten and harassed by white men employed by the Cordish company to “lighten up” its clubs as part of a long-running campaign to keep away black people.
Cordish is the latest Trump pick with an alleged racist past.
