--- description: Woody Guthrie wrote angry songs about Fred Trump, his landlord title: Woody Guthrie Wrote Angry Songs About Donald Trump's Dad image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc2dd8311195e041/69887a085f570f3737b1f493/woody-guthrie.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Donald Trump](/tag/donald-trump/) ## Donald Trump Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Woody Guthrie Wrote Angry Songs About Donald Trump's Dad  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 21, 2016 7:06 PM CUT  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](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 21, 2016 7:06 PM CUT For two years, [folk icon Woody Guthrie](http://time.com/3148184/woody-guthrie-my-name-is-new-york-unreleased-song/ "undefined") 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 "undefined") 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/ "undefined"), 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 "undefined"), a professor of American literature and culture. Kaufman found Guthrie’s old lease and writings in the [Woody Guthrie Archive](http://woodyguthriecenter.org/archives/ "undefined") 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 "undefined"). 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/ "undefined"). 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 "undefined"). --- > “” --- ```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"}}]}] ```