--- title: Donald Trump: Former Butler Defends Him on Racism Charges description: Donald Trump's former butler—who in March called for President Barack Obama to be killed—said Wednesday that Trump is not racist canonical: https://time.com/4361902/donald-trump-butler-racist-bone/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-08T19:57:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:06.305Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump's Former Butler: There's Not 'a Racist Bone in His Body' og:description: The butler has also been accused of racism after calling for Obama to be killed og:url: https://time.com/4361902/donald-trump-butler-racist-bone/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c0c0efac0d829b5/698897025f570f6fd3b21424/trump-butler-defense.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Donald Trump's Former Controversial Butler Anthony Senecal Speaks To Gold Coast Tiger Bay Club og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump's Former Butler: There's Not 'a Racist Bone in His Body' twitter:description: The butler has also been accused of racism after calling for Obama to be killed twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c0c0efac0d829b5/698897025f570f6fd3b21424/trump-butler-defense.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's Former Butler: There's Not 'a Racist Bone in His Body' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 8, 2016 7:57 PM UTC  Tony Senecal, the former butler for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate, speaks to the Gold Coast Tiger Bay Club on June 8 in Boca Raton, Florida. Tony Senecal, the former butler for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate, speaks to the Gold Coast Tiger Bay Club on June 8 in Boca Raton, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 8, 2016 7:57 PM UTC Donald Trump’s former butler—who in March [called for](http://time.com/4328302/donald-trump-butler-historian-president-obama/) President Barack Obama to be killed—[said Wednesday](http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/donald-trumps-former-butler-says-there-isnt-a-racist-bone-in-his-body/2280770) that the presumptive Republican nominee is not racist. Speaking at Gold Coast Tiger Bay Club in Boca Raton, Florida, Anthony Senecal said there was no credence to criticism that Trump is racist, the [Tampa Bay _Times_ reported](http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/donald-trumps-former-butler-says-there-isnt-a-racist-bone-in-his-body/2280770). “I saw him working with everybody—you know, the Hispanics, the blacks, the foreigners. I mean, he would talk with any of them, all of them,” Senecal said. “There isn’t a racist bone in his body.” In March, Trump [denounced Senecal’s “horrible statements,”](http://time.com/4328621/donald-trump-campaign-butler-president-obama-murder/) referring to a Facebook post in which Senecal said Obama “should have taken out by our military and shot as an enemy agent.” **Read more:** [Donald Trump’s Longtime Butler Reveals Mogul’s Quirks](http://time.com/4260411/donald-trump-butler/) Trump has [come under fire from GOP leaders](http://time.com/4359768/paul-ryan-donald-trump-judge-curiel-racism/?xid=homepage) for his comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over the class-action [lawsuit against Trump University](http://time.com/4353116/trump-university-documents-released/). Trump has said Curiel has a conflict of interest because of his Mexican heritage. Curiel, an American, was born in Indiana. In a statement on Tuesday, Trump said his [comments about Curiel were “misconstrued,”](http://time.com/4360424/donald-trump-gonzalo-curiel-misconstrued/) but he did not apologize. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4361902/donald-trump-butler-racist-bone/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4361902/donald-trump-butler-racist-bone/"},"headline":"Donald Trump's Former Butler: There's Not 'a Racist Bone in His Body'","datePublished":"2016-06-08T19:57:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:06.305Z","description":"The butler has also been accused of racism after calling for Obama to be killed","url":"https://time.com/4361902/donald-trump-butler-racist-bone/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c0c0efac0d829b5/698897025f570f6fd3b21424/trump-butler-defense.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":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c0c0efac0d829b5/698897025f570f6fd3b21424/trump-butler-defense.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump's Former Controversial Butler Anthony Senecal Speaks To Gold Coast Tiger Bay Club","caption":"Donald Trump's Former Controversial Butler Anthony Senecal Speaks To Gold Coast Tiger Bay Club","creditText":"Joe Raedle/Getty Images","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/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4361902/donald-trump-butler-racist-bone/","name":"Donald Trump's Former Butler: There's Not 'a Racist Bone in His Body'"}}]}] ```