Donald Trump is speaking next week at an event hosted by a group whose mission is to “eradicate” abortion “entirely.”
As Rolling Stone reported last fall, the former president thinks he can run as a moderate on abortion. He hasn’t been doing a great job, though — repeatedly taking credit for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade while floating a federal abortion ban — and on Monday he’ll speak virtually at an event hosted by the Danbury Institute, a group that believes the “greatest atrocity facing our generation today is the practice of abortion — child sacrifice on the altar of self,” according to its website.
“Abortion must be ended,” the group continues. “We will not rest until it is eradicated entirely.”
Another portion of the Danbury Institute’s website notes that the group stands against “unbiblical ideologies such as Critical Race Theory, LGBTQ+ emphases, sex and slave trafficking, and rampant efforts to ‘trans’ our youngest generation.”
The group isn’t the only controversial campaign stop the former president is making in the coming days. On Saturday, he’ll attend a fundraiser hosted by a construction company CEO who recently settled a lawsuit alleging he made racist remarks to his employees.
Don Ahern, owner of Xtreme Manufacturing, Ahern Rentals, and Ahern Luxury Boutique Hotel in Las Vegas, will host the former president at a fundraiser where tickets for two will go as high as $844,600, CNBC reported.
Mark Townsend, an employee of Ahern’s who worked at his rentals company for over 17 years, alleged he saw Ahern make racist and bigoted statements at work. Townsend filed the lawsuit after he was terminated from his position, and sought monetary damages “for lost income” among other benefits. Townsend alleged he heard Ahern say, “We don’t like hiring n—–. They are dumb. They are just born that way.”
At one point, Townsend alleged, Ahern said, “If it was up to me, I would get rid of all the n——, Mexicans, and women because they’re useless.”
The case was settled out of court in July 2023. Ahern’s legal team said the CEO denied “each and every allegation contained in the complaint.”
Townsend’s suit wasn’t the first instance of alleged misconduct by Ahern. Earlier this year, Ahern’s general counsel Mohammed Sami Bakdash said under oath that Ahern used racist language and took issue with working with women.
Bakdash testified to hearing the remarks in a May 2024 deposition, which was part of a larger legal battle involving Ahern. Several companies accused Ahern Rentals of engaging in a multistate fraud scheme to distribute mobile solar generators. Although the person who led the Ponzi scheme was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2021, some companies are suing Ahern Rentals to recover any funds they lost.
During the May 24 deposition, Bakdash was asked “Within the last year or so before you left Ahern Rentals, did you hear Don Ahern use the N-word?”
“Yes, sir,” he responded.
“Towards the end of my tenure there, it seemed like he did not like … working with women,” he added.
Ahern and Trump have long been friends. Ahern hosted an indoor Trump rally at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic for the 2020 campaign and then donated $250,000 to the pro-Trump PAC Make America Great Again, Again.
Trump has also been alleged to have said the N-word. Rumors have circulated for years that he did so on the set of The Apprentice, although the tapes have never been made public. Late last month, a producer on the show breathed new life into the allegation with an op-ed for Slate, writing that Trump was hesitant to crown a Black man the winner of the show’s first season, wondering aloud whether America “would America buy a n—– winning?”
In February this year, Trump said “The Black People like me” because “I’m being indicted for you, the Black population.”
