OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
3:40 PM – Tuesday, February 17, 2026
President Donald Trump posted a tribute on Truth Social honoring the late Reverend Jesse Jackson, the renowned civil rights leader who passed away on Tuesday at age 84. In the message, Trump described him as “a good man, with lots of personality, grit, and ‘street smarts.’”
“The Reverend Jesse Jackson is Dead at 84,” the president announced on Tuesday. “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!”
Reverend Jackson had long battled progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare and incurable neurodegenerative disorder that often resembles Parkinson’s disease in its early stages but progresses more rapidly.
Initially diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2017, his condition was later revised to PSP in April 2025. The disease causes progressive deterioration in balance, movement, eye control, swallowing, and other functions, leading to an accelerated decline and increased vulnerability to complications such as infections.
Jackson was a key activist in the civil rights movement, participating in early protests as a student at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, where he helped lead demonstrations — including sit-ins — that contributed to the desegregation of local theaters, restaurants, and other public accommodations in the early 1960s.
He also later became a close protégé of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., joining the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and marching alongside King during the historic 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights campaign.
Jackson’s Coalition said on Tuesday that “Reverend Jackson’s fearless leadership brought attention to issues of racial discrimination, economic and gender inequality, social injustice, healthcare, education, and peace-building—earning him recognition as a true humanitarian and world leader.”
Trump and Jackson had a friendly relationship when the now-president was a New York real estate developer and Jackson was leading civil rights efforts through his coalition. For years, Trump provided free office space for years to Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in his building at 40 Wall Street in Manhattan.
Jackson even publicly acknowledged and praised Trump for it at a 1999 event, calling him a “friend” who was inclusive and supportive of minority hiring efforts.
“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,” Trump continued.
Trump also stated that he responded to Jackson’s “request for help in getting CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM passed and signed, when no other President would even try,” while additionally noting that he “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.”
“Jesse was a force of nature like few others before him,” said Trump.
“He had much to do with the [2008] Election, without acknowledgment or credit, of Barack Hussein Obama, a man who Jesse could not stand,” Trump added.
Analysts have argued that Jackson’s presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988 effectively “raised the lid” on what was possible for minority candidates. By building his Rainbow Coalition, he successfully pushed Democrats to be more racially inclusive and mobilized millions of previously disenfranchised Black voters, Jackson’s representatives added.
While Jackson’s relationship with the first Black U.S. president was generally supportive at the beginning, marked famously by his tears of joy at Obama’s victory rally in Chicago, it was also punctuated by moments of tension and fury.
The most notable occurred during the 2008 campaign when Jackson was caught on a “hot mic” condemning Obama for “talking down” to the Black community during a Father’s Day speech on personal responsibility.
“I want to cut his nuts out,” Jackson said about Obama during a Fox News break, thinking the microphone was off. “Barack, he is talking down to Black people…”
Despite this friction, Obama acknowledged Jackson’s impact in a tribute on Tuesday, stating that he “stood on Jesse’s shoulders” to reach the White House.
President Trump also reportedly sent his “deepest sympathies and condolences” to Jackson’s family, who called him a “servant leader” in a Facebook statement on Tuesday.
“He died peacefully on Tuesday morning, surrounded by his family,” said the Jackson family. “His unwavering commitment to justice, equality and human rights helped shape a global movement for freedom and dignity. A tireless change agent, he elevated the voices of the voiceless — from his Presidential campaigns in the 1980s to mobilizing to register to vote — leaving an indelible mark on history.”
“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the family continued. “We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions.”
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