Washington — President Trump on Tuesday extended sympathies to the family of the Rev. Jesse Jackson following his death at 84 and called the civil rights leader a “force of nature like few others before him.”

In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said he knew Jackson years before he became president and provided assistance to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the civil rights organization that Jackson founded.

“He was a good man, with lots of personality, grit, and ‘street smarts,'” Mr. Trump wrote. “He was very gregarious – Someone who truly loved people! 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.” 

The president listed policies enacted during his two administrations that he said Jackson supported, including criminal justice reform, more funding for historically Black colleges and universities, and “Opportunity Zones,” which are tax incentives that aim to spur economic development in low-income areas and were created through the 2017 tax reform legislation.

“Jesse was a force of nature like few others before him,” Mr. Trump said, adding that Jackson “loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences. Jesse will be missed!”

Mr. Trump posted a number of old photos with Jackson. 

Jackson’s family said in a statement he died peacefully Tuesday morning. He was hospitalized in November for observation for a neurodegenerative condition, which he had been diagnosed with last year.

Mr. Trump and Jackson’s relationship dates back decades. Photos show the two men together at a boxing match in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1988, as well as at a campaign event in New York later that year. In 1997, the president announced he would donate office space to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s Wall Street Project in The Trump Building at 40 Wall Street, which he was renovating, the New York Times reported at the time. 

Jackson introduced Mr. Trump during a conference hosted by the Wall Street Project in January 1998, jokingly calling him “the most bashful and the most retreating and the most self-effacing” as Mr. Trump looked on.

One year later, Jackson again introduced Mr. Trump and praised him for offering the Wall Street Project work space at 40 Wall Street, which Jackson said was “to make a statement about our having a presence there.”

“One can miss his seriousness and his commitment, for his success is beyond argument,” Jackson said of Mr. Trump.

Jackson, who ran for president as a Democrat in 1984 and 1988, also said that during those bids, Mr. Trump attended a business meeting hosted by the campaign in New York because Mr. Trump “has this sense of the curious and the will … to make things better. Aside from all of his style and his pizzazz, he’s a serious person.”