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Music Mogul Russell Simmons Cuts Ties With Former Good Friend Donald Trump

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 12:23 PST, Feb 1, 2017

Russell Simmons, one of the biggest names in the music industry, revealed on Monday that he has officially cut ties with Donald Trump, a former “good friend.” In fact, the unlikely duo were such good buddies in the past that Trump contributed to the forward of two of Simmons’ books.

“He wrote the foreword to my first two books — I know him very well.”

According to Russell Simmons, he met the former reality TV star when he was on his very first date with current First Lady Melania, reports Fox News.

However, despite once being very close with the new POTUS, Simmons says that the pair’s friendship has soured, a process that began when Trump launched his White House bid. Simmons says that the deteriorating friendship is largely his own fault; he admits that he has had some not-so-nice things to say about Donald since the former host of Celebrity Apprentice got all political.

“I’m sure he doesn’t consider me a friend after some of the statements I’ve made.”

To be fair, some of the things that Russell Simmons has said about Donald Trump have been pretty offensive. Regardless of how true they may or may not have been, they haven’t been the words of a friend. Apparently, Trump took notice at some point. That or Russell Simmons simply stopped caring what the real estate tycoon thought.

As CNN reports, Russell Simmons called out Donald Trump on his race relations last September. That’s when the hip-hop tycoon said that Trump is the “epitome of white supremacy.” According to Simmons, Trump has been saying racist stuff for decades, and Russell Simmons has heard the racist words coming from the new POTUS’ mouth.

“I’ve heard him [Trump] say racist things for 30 years… white supremacy, he’s the epitome of it. He represents the image of white supremacy more than any candidate I’ve ever seen.”

In fact, Simmons was so concerned about Trump and his “racist” rhetoric and language that the Def Jams founder warned that the then-candidate was watering the “seeds of hate,” adding that with Trump in power, America could be headed toward war or even genocide, such as was seen in Rwanda.

“Hate grew quickly. And just because we’ve evolved into a less hateful society doesn’t mean we can’t go the other way.”

As AOL News reports, Russell Simmons’ Trump insults didn’t stop at targeting his alleged racism. In fact Simmons thinks that the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak, could have been when he compared Trump to another infamous reality TV star.

Simmons says that back in 2015, when the Donald first announced he was aiming for the White House, he’d prefer to see Kim Kardashian in the Oval Office. He made the remarks during a taped interview, and they reached Trump’s ears. Apparently, they didn’t sit well.

“We haven’t been friends since the day he announced and I said, ‘I’d rather Kim Kardashian be President’ so he called the office and that was the end of our friendship.”

Simmons says that when Trump called the office to confront him over his harsh words, he didn’t answer. Instead, he treated the soon-to-be president to the direction of his assistant. Russell Simmons claims that he instructed the assistant to check out Google if he had any further questions.

“I said, ‘It’s on video! Tell him it’s on video!’ And we didn’t speak after that.”

Back in the Trump/Simmons heyday, Russell says that he spent almost every single weekend at Trump’s Florida Mar-a-lago resort. Today, not so much.

In fact, Russell Simmons is reportedly taking direct aim at his former-friend-turned-POTUS in the wake of the latter’s controversial travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries. Immediately after the ban was announced, Simmons took to Twitter (Trump’s favorite communication platform) and bashed the executive order.

In addition to calling the ban “shameful,” Russell Simmons is reportedly cooking up plans to spearhead the “resistance” to the divisive Trump travel ban.

[Featured Image by Brian Ach/AP Images]

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