The former boxing promoter Don King let loose a racial epithet while introducing Donald J. Trump in Ohio on Wednesday as the candidate was sitting just a few feet away onstage.
In the middle of making the case for why America, and “especially black people,” need to elect Mr. Trump, Mr. King recalled something he once told Michael Jackson about assimilation.
“I told Michael Jackson, I said, if you are poor, you are a poor Negro — I would use the N-word — if you are rich, you are a rich Negro,” he said at a campaign event at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights.
“If you are a talented intellectual, you are an intellectual Negro. If you are a dancing and sliding and gliding nigger, I mean Negro,” he said, as he chuckled briefly and those in the crowd laughed nervously around him.
Mr. Trump, who was sitting directly behind Mr. King and smiling broadly for much of his introduction, did not flinch or break his gaze. He kept his smile and turned to those sitting next to him, as Mr. King corrected himself.
Mr. King continued, “So dare not alienate because you cannot assimilate, so you are going to be a Negro ‘til you die.”
Mr. King, wearing a sparkly denim jacket, jeweled with American flags and patriotic emblems, finished his introduction and gave Mr. Trump a hug before leaving the stage, waving the flag of Israel as he departed.
Mr. King took the role of introducing Mr. Trump, despite the presence of the candidate’s running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, who instead introduced Mr. King.
At the Republican National Convention in July, Mr. King said he was invited to speak by the Trump campaign, but that the Republican National Committee barred him from speaking because he had been convicted of manslaughter.