Racism
In the 1970s, Trump was sued twice by the U.S. Justice Department for discriminating against black people who wanted to rent housing from his father's company. He started his political career by arguing falsely and repeatedly that Barack Obama was not a United States citizen, and he later lied about having found evidence in support of his claims. During the presidential campaign, Trump was denounced by politicians on the right and left after saying a U.S. district judge of Mexican ancestry couldn't be unbiased in the Trump University fraud suit because of his heritage. House Speaker Paul Ryan said, "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."
Timeline
| 1989.09.05 | Trump says blacks have a tremendous advantage over whites when looking for jobs. newsone.com (See also Black Americans) |
| 2014.11.25 | Trump says that because of Obama there won't be another black president for generations. newsone.com (See also Black Americans) |
| 2017.03.27 | During a press briefing, Sean Spicer refuses to comment on a direct question about the stabbing death of Timothy Caughman, a black man, allegedly by a white supremacist, instead pivoting to anti-Semitic bomb threats purportedly made by a Jewish teen. whitehouse.gov (See also Hate Crimes) |
| 2017.08.02 | Two close associates of Pope Francis have accused American Catholic ultraconservatives of making an alliance of “hate” with evangelical Christians to back President Trump, focusing on Steve Bannon as a “supporter of an apocalyptic geopolitics” that has stymied action against climate change and exploited fears of migrants and Muslims with calls for “walls and purifying deportations.” nytimes.com (See also Steve Bannon, Muslims, Nationalism) |
| 2017.08.08 | Three days after a bomb exploded at a mosque in suburban Minneapolis, a White House official said he isn't yet convinced the attack was not a "fake hate crime." buzzfeed.com (See also Muslims) Trump still hasn't said anything about the bombing, which tore through part of the mosque on Saturday while people were arriving for prayers. |
| 2017.08.10 | Sam Clovis, Donald Trump's pick to be chief scientist for the Department of Agriculture, pushed unfounded theories about then-President Barack Obama's upbringing and called then-Attorney General Eric Holder a "racist black." cnn.com (See also Department of Agriculture, False Statements) Sam Clovis, Donald Trump's pick to be chief scientist for the Department of Agriculture, pushed unfounded theories about then-President Barack Obama's upbringing and called then-Attorney General Eric Holder a "racist black," a CNN KFile review of Clovis's writings and radio broadcasts during 2012 and 2013 has found. |
| 2017.08.15 | In a long, combative exchange with reporters at Trump Tower in Manhattan, the president repeatedly rejected a torrent of bipartisan criticism for waiting two days before naming the right-wing groups and placing blame on “many sides” for the violence in Charlottesville that ended with the death of a young woman after a car crashed into a crowd. nytimes.com (See also Nationalism, Anti-Semitism, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.08.15 | Weeks before a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, led to three deaths and 19 injuries, the Trump administration revoked a grant to Life After Hate, a group that works to de-radicalize neo-Nazis. huffingtonpost.com (See also Department of Homeland Security, Anti-Semitism, Muslims) |
| 2017.08.16 | Two of Donald Trump’s councils of top business leaders are disbanding following Tuesday’s controversial remarks by the president about the weekend’s violence in Virginia. wsj.com (See also Anti-Semitism, Nationalism) Mr. Trump tweeted Wednesday that he was ending the councils, only *after* one of the councils had planned to disband after a conference call of its executives. |
| 2017.08.16 | White nationalist leader David Duke on Tuesday thanked Trump for blaming violence in Charlottesville, Va., on the "alt-left." thehill.com (See also Anti-Semitism, Nationalism) |
| 2017.08.18 | House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi endorsed a call to censure Donald Trump for his response to the violent white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia. politico.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Unpresidential Behavior, Anti-Semitism, Nationalism) |
| 2017.08.18 | The remaining members of a presidential arts and humanities panel resigned in yet another sign of growing national protest of Trump’s recent comments on the violence in Charlottesville. washingtonpost.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Unpresidential Behavior, Nationalism, Anti-Semitism) |
| 2017.08.20 | An expanding number of organizations that had planned to hold galas at the president’s Florida resort - Mar-a-Lago - are deciding to raise money elsewhere. nytimes.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Unpresidential Behavior, Nationalism, Anti-Semitism) |
| 2017.08.23 | A UN committee charged with tackling racism has issued an “early warning” over conditions in the US and urged the Trump administration to “unequivocally and unconditionally” reject discrimination. theguardian.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Nationalism) In the past decade, the only other countries that have been issued similar warnings were Burundi, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, and Nigeria. |
| 2017.08.23 | Seven members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, which includes Obama appointees, resigned this week, citing Trump’s Charlottesville response and other actions which they say threaten Homeland Security. huffingtonpost.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Nationalism, Anti-Semitism) |
| 2017.08.25 | More than one-quarter of a panel tasked with advising the Homeland Security Department on cybersecurity and infrastructure protection resigned en masse, citing Trump’s “insufficient attention” to the nation’s cyber vulnerabilities, his response to racist violence in Charlottesville, withdrawing from the Paris Accord, among other complaints. defenseone.com (See also Nationalism, Environment, John Kelly, Department of Homeland Security) |
| 2017.08.26 | Controversial former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio was pardoned by Donald Trump on Friday after being found guilty in July on criminal contempt charges stemming from his refusal to stop imprisoning suspected illegal immigrants. abcnews.go.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Immigration, Immigrants) |
| 2017.08.28 | Donald Trump said he announced his pardon of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio as Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas because he “assumed the ratings would be far higher.” thehill.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Immigration, Legal Issues) |
| 2017.09.05 | The Trump administration announced Tuesday it would begin to unwind an Obama-era program known as DACA that allows younger undocumented immigrants to live in the country without fear of deportation, calling the program unconstitutional. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigration, Jeff Sessions, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice) |
| 2017.09.12 | The Supreme Court reinstated disputed congressional and state voting maps in Texas, blocking two lower court rulings that said the Republican-backed district lines were the product of racial discrimination. bloomberg.com (See also Supreme Court) The high court action is a victory for Texas Republicans, who defended the districts and sought Supreme Court intervention. It’s a blow to minority-rights groups that sued to challenge the maps. |
| 2017.09.14 | Donald Trump again drew a parallel between white supremacists and counter protesters, drawing a mild rebuke from South Carolina’s Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate who met with Trump to discuss racial issues a day earlier. bloomberg.com (See also Anti-Semitism, Nationalism) |
| 2017.09.23 | Donald Trump appeared at a campaign rally in Huntsville, Ala., veering off topic, and eventually landing on a few controversial points regarding the NFL and players peacefully protesting violence against African-Americans. washingtonpost.com (See also Black Americans, Nationalism, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.09.23 | Donald Trump says Stephen Curry’s White House invitation has been ‘withdrawn,' ignoring that there had been no invitation yet, but the NBA champions were not welcome at the White House. washingtonpost.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.09.24 | The Trump administration announced new restrictions on visitors from eight countries — an expansion of an existing travel ban that has spurred fierce legal debates over security, immigration and discrimination, adding Chad, North Korea and Venezuela to the new indefinite ban. washingtonpost.com (See also Muslim Immigration Ban, Nationalism, North Korea, Foreign Policy, Iran) |
| 2017.09.25 | Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit America’s racial and religious divisions during the 2016 presidential campaign. washingtonpost.com (See also 2016 Campaign, Russian Meddling in Election) |
Assessments
Scott Alexander–Slate Star Codex
Alexander considers the question, "Is Trump Racist?", in his November 2016 column, You Are Still Crying Wolf.
I stick to my thesis from October 2015. There is no evidence that Donald Trump is more racist than any past Republican candidate (or any other 70 year old white guy, for that matter). All this stuff about how he’s “the candidate of the KKK” and “the vanguard of a new white supremacist movement” is made up. It’s a catastrophic distraction from the dozens of other undeniable problems with Trump that could have convinced voters to abandon him. ...
How could Trump insult a Mexican judge just for being Mexican? I don’t know. How could Trump insult a disabled reporter just for being disabled? How could Trump insult John McCain just for being a beloved war hero? Every single person who’s opposed him, Trump has insulted in various offensive ways, including 140 separate incidents of him calling someone “dopey” or “dummy” on Twitter, and you expect him to hold his mouth just because the guy is a Mexican?
Jamelle Bouie–Slate
On Feb. 6, 2017 Bouie examined the White Nationalist project and advocates taking root in the White House, examining an essay written under the pseudonym, Publius Decius Mus:
he wrote, hailing the real estate mogul as the only figure who understood the stakes, who would beat back these “foreigners” and preserve America’s democratic tradition as Decius saw it. Not a tradition of pluralism, but one of exclusion, in which white Americans stand as the only legitimate players in political life. A dictatorship of the herrenvolk.