Don King Says Trump Is Best Choice for America
The famed boxing promoter blames the Biden administration for divisiveness and rising antisemitism.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – A Hall of Fame boxing promoter, Don King, a long-time supporter of President Trump, blames the Biden administration for a lack of support for Israel and the rise of antisemitism in America.
“We have to join together as a people and fight this system that creates that type of divisiveness and the type of prejudice that says we can’t work together,” Mr. King told the Sun in an exclusive interview. “Now with antisemitism rising after Hamas attacking [Israel], they’re making the victim the victimizer. They’re making a lie believed as the truth and the truth believed as a lie. We’ve got to be able to deal with what is real and that’s why I support Trump, 100 percent.”
Mr. King is best known for his spiked hair and for promoting legendary boxing matches such as the “Rumble in the Jungle,” where Muhammad Ali upset George Foreman at Zaire, Africa, in 1974 to regain the heavyweight title, and the “Thrilla in Manila” in 1975, where Ali defeated Joe Frazier in the third and final encounter of their memorable trilogy. Mr. King also promoted stars like Robert Duran, Julio Cesar Chavez, Felix “Tito” Trinidad, and a slew of heavyweights including Larry Holmes, Evander Holyfield, and Mike Tyson.
At age 92, he remains active, promoting boxing shows mainly at South Florida. On June 7, he’ll stage a “Fists of Fury’ boxing card at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel Casino at Hollywood, Florida, with a former champion, Adrien Broner, headlining against Blair “The Flair” Cobbs. When he’s not talking about boxing, Mr. King talks about why Mr. Trump should be president again.
“Donald Trump is the best thing to happen to America over the last series of presidents that have been there because he’s not afraid to call out who the culprits are, the lying politicians of the party, and identifying them and exposing them,” Mr. King said. “That’s why I fight so hard for him because I’m fighting for the people. I’m fighting for America.”
Messrs. King and Trump met decades ago and worked together to stage a heavyweight title fight at Atlantic City, where Mr. Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks in 90 seconds on June 27, 1988. The matchup between unbeaten champions was the richest fight in boxing history at the time, earning $70 million. Mr. King has supported presidents from both parties over the years and is not shy about his support for Mr. Trump.
“He’s fighting for the American people and the principles that America was founded upon: liberty, justice, equality, and independence,” Mr. King said. “When you say ‘a new nation under God conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,’ that is what he’s fighting for, those principles that are eternal, God-given principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Mr. King said Mr. Trump is being unfairly persecuted on felony charges he falsified business records and made a $130,000 hush-money payment to an adult film star, Stormy Daniels, to influence the 2016 election. Mr. King is no stranger to being the center of court proceedings. He served nearly four years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter in 1967. In 1985, he was found not guilty of tax evasion, and in 1998 a jury acquitted Mr. King of insurance fraud after another jury was deadlocked on the same charges in 1995. He links what he sees as the persecution of Mr. Trump to creating the type of division that is plaguing the country.
“We have to understand you can’t underestimate the corruption and the power and what it does,” Mr. King said. “The Democratic Party is castigating and making the problems we have: biasness, racism, divisiveness, no jobs. We can now see the difference between a Biden administration and a Trump administration. The Biden administration and that crooked system manipulated Trump out of the White House. We have to understand you can’t underestimate the corruption and the power and what it does.”
Mr. King also supported Mr. Trump in the 2016 and 2020 elections. “I support him because I support the American people,” Mr. King said. “Globally, he’s supported because he don’t play no games. When he says something, you’re going to take it to heart. He doesn’t play any game like Joe Biden, who will tell a lie in two seconds.”