Trump busted for kissing up to Al Sharpton in hopes of landing Mike Tyson fight at his casino

A New York Times reporter busted President Donald Trump for sucking up to the Rev. Al Sharpton in hopes of persuading black boxers to fight at his casino.

The president hurled racist abuse Monday morning at Sharpton, the civil rights activist and MSNBC broadcaster, as he continued his attacks on public figures who are black, Latino and Muslim.

Sharpton called in to MSNBC's "Morning Joe," where he revealed that Trump had begged him to meet with him at Mar-A-Lago shortly after the November 2016 election, and Times reporter Glenn Thrush dug up an old interview with the activist from that same year.

"When Donald Trump began opening hotels in Atlantic City, he wanted to get -- first, he had to deal with the fact that much of the city council there was black," Sharpton told Thrush, who then worked for Politico. "And that he had to deal with -- he wanted to get boxing in. Mike Tyson was a hot sensation."

Sharpton said during that Feb. 22, 2016, interview that boxing promoter Don King brokered a meeting with Trump in hopes of developing a business relationship with Tyson.

"Don King and Tyson was working with me on when I was painting crack houses, closing crack houses," Sharpton recalled. "Don King said, 'You need to make peace with Al Sharpton,' because I had marched on Trump about the ads he had ran against the Central Park Five, which I ended up being right about, that they were not the guys that raped the Central Park rape victim."

Thrush suggested the meeting took place in 1986, three years before that notorious case, and two years before Tyson did fight in Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall after Trump paid a then-record $11 million site fee to bring the fight to town, so the actual timing of the Sharpton-Trump meeting isn't clear.

Sharpton said at the time that Trump had always expressed "right-wing beliefs," but said he found it hard to personally dislike him -- and expressed his belief that Trump would move to the center if he won the election.

"The best way I can describe Donald Trump to friends is to say if Don King had been born white he'd be Donald Trump," Sharpton said. "Both of them are great self-promoters and great at just continuing to talk even if you're not talking back at them."