Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League called Trump’s comments “racist, xenophobic and despicable.” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement, “That’s a normal phrase that is used in everyday life – in books, television, movies, and in news articles. For anyone to think that is racist or xenophobic is living in an alternate reality consumed with non-sensical outrage.” In an October 2023 interview, Trump said undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” echoing language often used by white supremacists who fixate on so-called blood purity. On November 24, West released a video in which he stated that Trump began screaming at him and telling him that he was going to lose after West asked Trump to be his vice-presidential candidate, stating, “Trump started basically screaming at me at the table telling me I was going to lose – I mean has that ever worked for anyone in history. I’m like hold on, hold on, hold on, Trump, you’re talking to Ye”. In late November 2022, Kanye West (who had recently announced his own candidacy for the 2024 presidential election) visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago, along with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Some commentators considered Trump’s comments to be a racist and anti-immigrant attack, undermining the legitimacy of the children of immigrants of color as legitimate Americans.
- In his book published in September 2020, journalist Bob Woodward describes a recorded interview with Trump in which Woodward talks about white privilege.
- On August 20, 2019, after a reporter asked “Should there be any change in U.S. aid to Israel?”, Donald Trump stated within his answer, “And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” The quote caused outrage, shock and disdain from Jewish leaders and citizens in the United States.
- Trump’s real-estate company tried to avoid renting apartments to African-Americans in the 1970s and gave preferential treatment to whites, according to the federal government.
- The president of one advocacy group, Asian Americans advancing Justice, spoke out saying the administration threatened to discontinue its entire budget, which had ranged between $15 million and $16 million.
- Journalists, friends, family, and former employees have accused him of fueling racism in the United States.
The U.S. Department of Justice concluded that Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio oversaw the worst pattern of racial profiling in U.S. history. Trump responded with tweets claiming the Puerto Rican leadership were “not able to get their workers to help” because “They want everything to be done for them” while claiming federal workers were doing a “fantastic job.” As the death toll reached into the thousands, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York and others criticized the federal government and suggested racism was partially to blame for the insufficient response. According to two people who attended the meeting, Trump asked caucus members if they personally knew new cabinet member Ben Carson and appeared surprised when no one said they knew him. The question was part of Trump’s campaign rhetoric that was seen as characterizing all African Americans in terms of helpless poverty and inner-city violence.
Moving date of Tulsa rally
The authors concluded that “actions were more likely to be environmentally related, whereas rhetoric was more likely to be racist”, further positing that “spectacular racism has helped obscure the relatively smooth and devastating deregulation.” However, the authors also cautioned that the numbers of actions taken “do not indicate impact”, specifically pointing to the Muslim ban and restriction of asylum claims. Doug McAdam writes that alvexo forex broker Trump “is just giving unusually loud and frank voice to views already typical among large numbers of Republicans” and “has pushed the GOP toward ever further racist and nativist extremes.” McAdam believes that the Republican Party shift away from more liberal views on matters of racial equality began with Richard Nixon’s presidency. Following Trump’s defense of Confederate symbols in 2020, several journalists and pundits accused Trump of being racist and pandering to white voters. Following the incident in which Trump referred to several nations as “shithole countries”, some media commentators moved from describing certain words and actions of Trump as manifesting racism, to calling Trump racist. The Southern Poverty Law Center monitored Trump’s campaign throughout the election and noted several instances where Trump and lower-level surrogates either used white nationalist rhetoric or engaged with figures in the white nationalist movement. They affirmed their racialist beliefs, stating “Race is real, race matters, and race is the foundation of identity.” Speakers called for a “White Homeland” and expounded on racial differences in intelligence.
Native American casino industry
George Yancy, a professor at Emory University known for his work on racial issues, concluded that Trump is racist, describing his outlook as “a case of unabashed white supremacist ideas.” Additionally, John Cassidy of The New Yorker concluded, “we have a racist in the Oval Office.” CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta said the Washington Post report combined with statements made in 2016 and 2017 shows “the president seems to harbor racist feelings about people of color from other parts of the world.” Andrew Anglin, the editor of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer stated, “Virtually every alt-right Nazi I know is volunteering for the Trump campaign.” Rocky Suhayda, chairman of the American Nazi Party, said that although Trump “isn’t one of us,” his election would be a “real opportunity” for the white nationalist movement.
In 2018, during an Oval Office meeting about immigration reform, Trump referred to El Salvador, Haiti, and African countries as “shitholes”, which critics condemned as a racist comment. From 2011 to 2016, Trump was a leading proponent of the debunked birther conspiracy theory falsely claiming president Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Journalists, friends, family, and former employees have accused him of fueling racism in the United States.
Jewish voters who support Democrats “disloyal”
The memo instructed Federal agencies to “begin to identify all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on ‘critical race theory,’ ‘white privilege,’ or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil.” Trump cited conservative media reports and retweeted Twitter posts to describe the policy. The tweet included an embedded video showing several pro-Trump senior citizens in Florida having an exchange with anti-Trump protestors and supporters of Black Lives Matter as well as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The phrase had been used previously in 1967 by a Miami police chief, Walter Headley, that was widely condemned by civil rights groups and repeated in 1968 during the presidential campaign of segregationist George Wallace. They asked when would Americans declare that they “have had enough” of Trump’s words and actions, which both attract and shield “white supremacists who consider people of color a sub-human ‘infestation’ in America … The question is less about the president’s sense of decency, but of” Americans’.
Commentators noted that Trump’s redirection of the issue towards the anthem controversy was an attempt to play on social and racial issues in order to fire up his base and have connected it to his public criticisms of Black NBA players, Black UCLA basketball players, and a Black anchor on ESPN. Trump praised NFL owners when they voted to allow protesters to be penalized or dismissed for their actions, taking the occasion to suggest that players who didn’t want to stand for the anthem didn’t belong in the country. In August 2016 Colin Kaepernick, an NFL quarterback, began sitting (later kneeling) during the playing of the U.S. national anthem as a protest of police brutality and racial inequality suffered by Black Americans. He ignored their orders and was convicted of contempt of court for continuing to racially profile Hispanics. The illegal tactics that he was using included “extreme racial profiling and sadistic punishments that involved the torture, humiliation, and degradation of Latino inmates”.
- Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) stated that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), present at the meeting, had confirmed that Trump indeed called El Salvador, Haiti and some African nations “shithole countries”.
- Some chanted racist and antisemitic slogans, and carried Nazi flags, Confederate battle flags, anti-Muslim and antisemitic banners, and semi-automatic rifles.
- Trump praised NFL owners when they voted to allow protesters to be penalized or dismissed for their actions, taking the occasion to suggest that players who didn’t want to stand for the anthem didn’t belong in the country.
- Trump and his allies have often pointed to record-low unemployment numbers among blacks and Hispanics during his presidency as evidence that he is not a racist and that his administration is benefiting racial minorities.
Donald Trump’s Racism: The Definitive List, Updated
In a CBS News and YouGov poll of almost 2,100 American adults conducted from July 17 to 19, it was found that 34% felt that Trump’s initial tweets were not racist, and 48% felt that they were racist. On July 19, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, commented, “I reject Trump’s comments and stand in solidarity with the congresswomen he targeted.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “The comments made were hurtful, wrong and completely unacceptable. I want everyone in Canada to know that those comments are completely unacceptable and should not be allowed or encouraged in Canada”. On July 19, Trump praised the North Carolina crowd as “incredible people” and “incredible patriots”. Trump also named Ilhan Omar and misrepresented comments Omar made in 2013, falsely claiming that Omar had praised al-Qaeda. After the vote, Trump praised the Republican Party for being unified in rejecting the House resolution, while acknowledging that the resolution was regarding his comments on “four Democrat Congresswomen”.
Trump made comments following a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that were seen by critics as implying moral equivalence between the white supremacist marchers and those who protested against them as “very fine people”. Trump has nominated or appointed multiple people with a history of making racist comments. He called some of those who marched alongside white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., last August “very fine people.” He began his 2016 presidential campaign with a speech disparaging Mexican immigrants as criminals and “rapists.”
Charlottesville rally
During the early 1990s, competition from an expanding Native American casino industry threatened his Atlantic City investments. Trump told Playboy magazine in an interview published in 1997, “The stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true.” Two years later, when seeking the nomination of the Reform Party for president, Trump denied having made the statement. In June 2019 in response to Ken Burns’ documentary and the Netflix miniseries When They See Us, Trump stood by his previous statements, saying “You have people on both sides of that. They admitted their guilt. If you look at Linda Fairstein and if you look at some of the prosecutors, they think that the city should never have settled that case. So we’ll leave it at that.” They sued New York City in 2003 for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress.
In August 2016, Trump campaigned in Maine, which has a large immigrant Somali population. In an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Trump doubled-down on the assertion, insisting that “there were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations”. At a rally in Birmingham, Alabama on November 21, 2015, Trump falsely claimed that he had seen television reports about “thousands and thousands” of Arab Americans in New Jersey celebrating as the World Trade Center collapsed during the 9/11 attacks. On August 19, 2015, two white men (who later pled guilty to the attack) assaulted a man who was sleeping outside a subway station in Boston.
Independence Day speech
Senate minority whip Dick Durbin, the only Democrat present at the Oval Office meeting, stated that Trump did use racist language and referred to African countries as “shitholes” and that “he said these hate-filled things, and he said them repeatedly.” Five days after the rally, Trump returned to Twitter to express sympathy with the original rally and their defense of Confederate statues, writing, “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments” and “the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!” His statement and his subsequent defenses of it, in which he also referred to “very fine people on both sides”, suggested a moral equivalence between the white supremacist marchers and those who protested against them, leading some observers to state that he was sympathetic to white supremacy. In his initial statement on the rally, Trump condemned “hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides” but did not directly denounce white nationalists. Two hours after the dispersal order, a woman was killed and 35 other people injured at a nearby mall, when a self-professed neo-Nazi drove his car into a group of people who had been protesting against the rally.
Support from white nationalists and white supremacists
Shaun Donovan, the former secretary of the Housing and Urban Development department who is responsible for the creation of the policy, said that “Trump’s tweet is racist and wrong…” Some suggested that the comments by Trump were intended to shore up support among white suburban voters, noting that the day before this tweet Trump had posted a video of a white couple in front of their house angrily pointing guns at protesters. At a rally in Houston in October 2018, Trump stated “You know, they have a word—it’s sort of became old-fashioned—it’s called a nationalist. And I say, really, we’re not supposed to use that word. You know what I am? I’m a nationalist, okay? I’m a nationalist. Nationalist. Nothing wrong. Use that word. Use that word.” Trump later denied that there was any racial connotation connected to his use of the word. Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said, “America’s president is a racist and this is the proof. His hateful rhetoric has no place in the White House.” Representative Tim Walz of Minnesota said, “This is racism, plain and simple, and we need to call it that. My Republican colleagues need to call it that too.” Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said that Trump’s comments “smack of blatant racism—odious and insidious racism masquerading poorly as immigration policy”. Vice President Mike Pence stated that he “knows the president’s heart”, and that Trump’s goal is to reform the immigration system so that it is merit-based regardless of race, creed or country of origin, encouraging immigration by those who want to “contribute to a growing American economy and thriving communities.” Some Republican lawmakers denounced Trump’s comments, calling them “unfortunate” and “indefensible”, while others sidestepped or did not respond to them. In a tweet to mark the first anniversary, Trump stated “The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!” Critics contended that the wording “all types of racism” could be seen as a veiled defense of white nationalists, similarly to his “both sides” remarks on the rally. At a Somali support rally following Trump’s comments the Portland mayor welcomed the city’s Somali residents, saying, “We need you here.” Maine Republican US senator Susan Collins commented, “Mr. Trump’s statements disparaging immigrants who have come to this country legally are particularly unhelpful. Maine has benefited from people from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and, increasingly, Africa—including our friends from Somalia.”
On June 20, 2020, in a speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump used language widely described as racist, referring to COVID-19 as “Kung Flu”, a phrase that then Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway had previously described as “wrong”, “highly offensive” and “very hurtful”. Limbaugh had made numerous statements widely described as racist in his career as a radio personality. Despite widespread calls for his resignation (including by over 100 members of Congress), Trump continued to support Miller and did not condemn his advocacy of white supremacy. The Trump administration has included several officials with ties to white nationalism.
“I think I might have more Indian blood than a lot of the so-called Indians that are trying to open up the reservations.” Trump pardoned – and fulsomely praises – Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff sanctioned for racially profiling Latinos and for keeping immigrants in brutal prison conditions. Under Bannon’s leadership, the website Breitbart made white nationalism a central theme. Trump hired Steve Bannon as his campaign head and later White House chief strategist.
Cheadle also said “we just haven’t had people called the names publicly that we have had with this administration.” According to polling data during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Trump was receiving little support from African Americans. Prior to and during the 2016 campaign, Trump used his political platform to spread disparaging messages against various racial groups. Speaker of the House and a Trump supporter, Republican Paul Ryan commented, “I disavow these comments. Claiming a person can’t do the job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment. I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It’s absolutely unacceptable.” Former Apprentice contestant and former Trump administration communications director Omarosa Manigault Newman stated that Trump used “the N-word and others.” Bill Pruitt, co-producer of Season One of The Apprentice has also stated that Trump used a racial slur during filming of the show.