Donald Trump remembered Reverend Jesse Jackson as "a good man" and highlighted his contributions. Photo / Getty Images
President Donald Trump has remembered the late Reverend Jesse Jackson as “a good man, with lots of personality, grit and street smarts” – and claimed he “could not stand” Barack Obama.
The White House incumbent posted his tribute to the celebrated civil rights leader, who died on Tuesday (February 17, 2026) at the age of 84, on his Truth Social platform, alleging that Jackson never got the credit he deserved in helping Obama get elected as president in 2009.
Trump, 79, posted: “The Reverend Jesse Jackson is dead at 84. I knew him well, long before becoming President. He was a good man, with lots of personality, grit and ‘street smarts’.
“He was very gregarious – Someone who truly loved people! Despite the fact that I am falsely and consistently called a Racist by the Scoundrels and Lunatics on the Radical Left, Democrats ALL, it was always my pleasure to help Jesse along the way.
“I provided office space for him and his Rainbow Coalition, for years, in the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street; Responded to his request for help in getting CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM passed and signed, when no other President would even try; Single handedly pushed and passed long term funding for Historically Black Colleges Universities (HBCUs), which Jesse loved, but also, which other Presidents would not do; Responded to Jesse’s support for Opportunity Zones, the single most successful economic development package yet approved for Black business men/women, and much more.
“Jesse was a force of nature like few others before him. He had much to do with the Election, without acknowledgment or credit, of Barack Hussein Obama, a man who Jesse could not stand. He loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences. Jesse will be missed! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Jackson – who ran to be the Democratic presidential candidate twice in 1984 and 1988 – had a relationship of mutual respect with Obama, and supported his run to the White House.
However, in 2008, while Obama was running for president, Jackson was caught off-air on mic during an appearance on Fox and Friends saying he wanted to “cut his nuts off” after Obama made comments about absentee fathers in the African-American community.
Jackson did apologise for the remark, and famously cried with joy at Obama’s 2008 election victory, due to Obama becoming the first African-American president, the ultimate achievement of the civil rights movement he spearheaded.
Over several years, Trump has shared conspiracy theories that Obama had not been born in the United States, and was therefore not eligible to be president.
Records show that Obama was born on August 4, 1961, in Hawaii. His mother was an American citizen.
Since the news of Jackson’s death, countless tributes have been made to the man who worked alongside Reverend Martin Luther King jnr to secure rights for black Americans.
Former US president Joe Biden said in a post on X: “Reverend Jackson believed in his bones the promise of America: that we are all created equal in the image of God and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.
“While we’ve never fully lived up to that promise, he dedicated his life to ensuring we never fully walked away from it either.”
Martin Luther King III – the eldest son of Martin Luther King – said in a statement: “Reverend Jackson was more than a civil rights advocate – he was a living bridge between generations, carrying forward the unfinished work and sacred promise of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Jackson marched alongside King in 1965 in Selma, Alabama, and was with him on the day he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968.
Jesse’s granddaughter Donatella Jackson took to Instagram to say “it is a blessing to carry your name forward”.
Donatella posted that she is “thankful for the unconditional love, the endless support and the steadfastness with which you doted me, constantly stepping up as the leader I needed when many could not meet the moment, as you have done for so many others”.
Jackson died “peacefully on Tuesday morning surrounded by his family” after a long struggle with declining health including a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis and a battle with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), which affects walking and swallowing.