Don King uses N-word while introducing Donald Trump

The 2016 election cycle took its latest bizarre turn Wednesday when boxing promoter Don King dropped the N-word while introducing Donald Trump at an event in the battleground state of Ohio.

In a rambling introduction, the 85-year-old King related a conversation he said he once had with the late singer Michael Jackson.

King said he once told Jackson that, as a black person in America, "'if you're poor, you're a poor Negro. I would use the N-word. But if you're rich, you're a rich Negro. If you are intelligent, intellectual, you're an intellectual Negro. If you're a dancing and sliding and gliding n*****, I mean Negro, you are a dancing and sliding and gliding Negro.'"

King laughed after he accidentally dropped the most loaded word in American history. Seated behind King, Trump smiled as well.

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Even before King's unforced error, Trump's campaign has already been packed with racial controversy.

He was slated to hold a "town hall meeting on African American concerns" at the Cleveland church -- but the broader conference was hosted by Sean Hannity, a white Fox News personality who has already said he plans to vote for Trump.

The day before, Trump said "African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape that they've ever been in before. Ever. Ever. Ever." That comment reportedly drew applause from a mostly white audience. But it was widely criticized because 400 years of chattel slavery, the Jim Crow era and history in general.

Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, has a long history of flirting with the white supremacist movement online. The latest instance of this came Monday, when he posted a specious meme comparing Syrian refugees to Skittles.