Trump honors late Rev. Jesse Jackson, remembers years-long relationship 

President Donald Trump paid tribute to civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday at the age of 84.

In a Truth Social post Tuesday, Trump said he knew Jackson well and called him “a good man, with lots of personality, grit and ‘street smarts.’”

Trump provided Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition office space in his building on Wall Street “for years,” something Jackson acknowledged in a 1999 video.

“Aside from all of his style and his pizzazz, he’s a serious person who is an effective builder, able to build up people,” Jackson said of Trump. “Last year he was a part of our panel workshop on what are our challenges and opportunities to embrace underserved communities.”

In the video, a younger-looking Trump describes how Jackson negotiated the price of the office space from $40 per square foot to “nothing.”

“He’s a very tough negotiator,” Trump says. “He’s a terrific guy. We love him and I’m here for him.”

Cooperating on reforms

In his post on Tuesday, Trump detailed how he worked with Jackson to pass criminal justice reform legislation “when no other president would even try; single-handedly pushed and passed long-term funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which Jesse loved, but also which other presidents would not do; responded to Jesse’s support for Opportunity Zones, the single most successful economic development package yet approved for Black businessmen and women, and much more.”

Trump also shot back at charges he is a racist.

“Despite the fact that I am falsely and consistently called a racist by the scoundrels and lunatics on the radical left, Democrats all, it was always my pleasure to help Jesse along the way.”

Jackson praised Trump’s cooperation in the 1980s and 1990s – including during Jackson’s two bids for the Democratic presidential nomination – but became more critical when Trump entered politics in 2016, calling out rhetoric he viewed as divisive and disagreeing with Trump’s stance on immigration.

Jackson, who worked with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and was viewed by some as his successor, had a long life of political activism. He also faced several scandals.

In 1984, he was criticized for referring to Jews as “Hymies” and New York City as “Hymietown.”

In 2001, he admitted to fathering a child out of wedlock, and in 2008 he was caught on a hot mic saying he wished he could cut then-presidential candidate Barack Obama’s “nuts off” for “talking down to Black people.”

Although Jackson apologized for the remark and voiced support for Obama, Trump used the incident to say that Obama was “a man who Jesse could not stand.”

Jackson “loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences,” Trump concluded. “Jesse will be missed!”