What specific quotes did Donald Trump publish about the Central Park Five in 1989?

1. The advertisement and its central phrases

Donald Trump bought full‑page ads published May 1, 1989, in major New York papers calling for reinstatement of the death penalty and using incendiary language — including referring to the accused as “muggers and murderers” who should be “forced to suffer” and be “executed for their crimes” — lines reproduced in contemporary transcriptions of the ad ^{[1] [2]}. Fact‑checking and archival projects record that the text ran across four newspapers and totaled 619 words ^{[4] [1]}.

2. Law-and-order framing in the ad

The ad did not merely call for punishment; it framed a public‑safety crisis by saying many New Yorkers had been “given up as hostages to a world ruled by the law of the streets” and urged “respect for authority, the fear of retribution by the courts, society and the police for those who break the law,” language later cited in fact‑checks as accurate to the 1989 copy ^{[1] [5]}.

3. Media appearances at the time

Beyond the print ad, Trump defended his stance in media interviews in 1989 — notably on CNN with Larry King — reiterating support for harsh penalties, a posture that appears in retrospective reporting and fact checks summarizing his contemporaneous TV comments ^{[2] [3]}. Contemporary reporting and later retrospectives emphasize he never apologized for the ad after the five were exonerated ^{[3] [2]}.

4. How sources document the exact wording

Multiple archival and reporting outlets preserve and transcribe the May 1 ad. Roll Call / Factba.se and document archives reproduce the ad’s full text and count its 619 words and 34 sentences, providing the clearest verbatim source cited here ^{[4] [1]}. Snopes and NPR cite the same phrases when confirming the ad’s content and Trump’s later repetition ^{[5] [3]}.

5. Context: what the ad did not name and later developments

The ad did not name the five teenagers individually but demanded state action and the death penalty for those responsible; it came amid intense public fear about crime in New York in 1989 ^{[1] [6]}. The five men were later exonerated after DNA and a confession linked the assault to another man; they settled a civil suit with the city for roughly $41 million ^{[6] [3]}.

6. Competing interpretations and contemporary reaction

Advocates and the defendants’ lawyers described the ad as racially charged and inflaming public opinion; Yusef Salaam called Trump “the firestarter,” saying ordinary citizens were “manipulated and swayed into believing that we were guilty” ^{[7] [6]}. Supporters of Trump have framed his actions as a law‑and‑order response to an exceptionally violent crime; reporting records both the ad’s punitive language and Trump’s stated motive of protecting public safety ^{[1] [7]}.

7. Legal and political echoes decades later

Trump’s 1989 ad resurfaced repeatedly: he defended the wording while president and again during later political campaigns; the five filed a defamation suit after debate comments in 2024 when Trump repeated claims about their guilt, noting they never pleaded guilty and that some of his debate assertions were false according to court filings ^{[8] [9] [3]}.

Limitations and sourcing note: this account relies solely on the provided reporting and archival transcriptions, which reproduce the advertisement’s text and summarize Trump’s contemporaneous interviews and later defenses; available sources do not mention a complete word‑for‑word reproduction beyond those transcriptions cited here ^{[4] [1] [5]}.