Russell Simmons renounces friendship with Donald Trump

Hip-hop's Russell Simmons most enterprising entrepreneur — has cut ties to his former pal, President Trump.

 

“He wrote the foreword to my first two books — I know him very well,” Simmons told us at Cipriani 42nd St. on Monday night. Simmons, a Queens native like Trump, used to even consider The Donald a friend.

“Not anymore,” he said. “I’m sure he doesn’t consider me a friend after some of the statements I've made.”

Simmons has been critical of Trump since the President announced his candidacy in June 2015. Simmons’ most damning attack came during a taped interview where he compared Trump to another integrity challenged reality TV personality.

“We haven't been friends since the day he announced and I said, ‘I’d rather Kim Kardashian be President’ so he called the office and that was the end of our friendship,” Simmons told us. According to the Def Jam founder, he didn't take Trump's call.

“I didn't pick the phone up,” Simmons said, claiming he had an assistant tell Trump to google the interview for himself if he had any questions. “I said, 'It's on video! Tell him it's on video!' And we didn't speak after that.”

According to Simmons, there was a time where he spent “every weekend” with Trump at the real estate mogul's Mar-a-lago resort in Florida.

“I was with him on his first date with Melania,” he confessed. “We were friends for many years.”

Simmons declined to say whether or not Trump was the genitalia grabbing playboy he's boasted about being when the two of them hung-out.

“Well, you know, all of our friends have issues — I have issues,” Simmons squirmed. “I accept people as they are as long as they're not running for President.”

Simmons says that he now plans to spearhead a “resistance” to his former friend's anti-immigrant agenda. He told us all of this while attending the National Cares Mentoring for the Love of Our Children Gala in Midtown.

With Nicki Gostin, Brian Niemietz