--- title: Woody Guthrie Wrote Songs About Donald Trump's Dad description: Woody Guthrie wrote angry songs about Fred Trump, his landlord canonical: https://time.com/4188991/woody-guthrie-donald-trump-fred-trump-songs/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-21T19:06:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:20:20.954Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Woody Guthrie Wrote Angry Songs About Donald Trump's Dad og:description: 'Old Man Trump knows just how much Racial Hate he stirred up' og:url: https://time.com/4188991/woody-guthrie-donald-trump-fred-trump-songs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc2dd8311195e041/69887a085f570f3737b1f493/woody-guthrie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Guthrie og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Woody Guthrie Wrote Angry Songs About Donald Trump's Dad twitter:description: 'Old Man Trump knows just how much Racial Hate he stirred up' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc2dd8311195e041/69887a085f570f3737b1f493/woody-guthrie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Woody Guthrie Wrote Angry Songs About Donald Trump's Dad > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jan 21, 2016 7:06 PM UTC  Folk singer, Woody Guthrie, singing a song and playing his guitar. Folk singer, Woody Guthrie, singing a song and playing his guitar.AP  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jan 21, 2016 7:06 PM UTC For two years, [folk icon Woody Guthrie](http://time.com/3148184/woody-guthrie-my-name-is-new-york-unreleased-song/) was a tenant in one of the Brooklyn apartment buildings managed by Fred Trump, father of current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The living arrangement apparently [inspired bitter songwriting](https://theconversation.com/woody-guthrie-old-man-trump-and-a-real-estate-empires-racist-foundations-53026) about what Guthrie called “racist” housing practices by the real estate mogul. Donald Trump has [linked his legacy with that of his father](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/08/10/the-middle-class-housing-empire-donald-trump-abandoned-for-luxury-building/), whom Guthrie wrote about with disdain in song lyrics that were never published, [according to Will Kaufman](https://theconversation.com/woody-guthrie-old-man-trump-and-a-real-estate-empires-racist-foundations-53026), a professor of American literature and culture. Kaufman found Guthrie’s old lease and writings in the [Woody Guthrie Archive](http://woodyguthriecenter.org/archives/) in Tulsa, Okla., and posted them on [TheConversation.com](https://theconversation.com/woody-guthrie-old-man-trump-and-a-real-estate-empires-racist-foundations-53026). In his notebooks, Guthrie wrote: --- > “” --- The Department of Justice sued the Trump real estate business in the 1970s for violating the Fair Housing Act, [according to the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/times-insider/2015/07/30/1973-meet-donald-trump/). After Trump Management filed suit against the government, the two sides reached an agreement that “did not constitute an admission of guilt” by Trump or his company. Guthrie, whose songs advocated for American equality and condemned racism, lamented the lack of diversity among the residents of Trump’s Beach Haven apartments, [according to Kaufman](https://theconversation.com/woody-guthrie-old-man-trump-and-a-real-estate-empires-racist-foundations-53026). --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4188991/woody-guthrie-donald-trump-fred-trump-songs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4188991/woody-guthrie-donald-trump-fred-trump-songs/"},"headline":"Woody Guthrie Wrote Angry Songs About Donald Trump's Dad","datePublished":"2016-01-21T19:06:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:20:20.954Z","description":"'Old Man Trump knows just how much Racial Hate he stirred up'","url":"https://time.com/4188991/woody-guthrie-donald-trump-fred-trump-songs/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc2dd8311195e041/69887a085f570f3737b1f493/woody-guthrie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc2dd8311195e041/69887a085f570f3737b1f493/woody-guthrie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Guthrie","caption":"Folk singer, Woody Guthrie, singing a song and playing his guitar.","creditText":"AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4188991/woody-guthrie-donald-trump-fred-trump-songs/","name":"Woody Guthrie Wrote Angry Songs About Donald Trump's Dad"}}]}] ```