During a brief Q&A with reporters this week, Donald Trump made a familiar claim: “I am the least racist person there is anywhere in the world.” Got it. There are 7.5 billion people on the planet, and they’re all more racist than the sitting American president — his lengthy history of racism notwithstanding.
If Trump’s boast sounded at all familiar, it’s probably because he’s repeated the line on many occasions. The Washington Post‘s Eugene Scott wrote a piece early last year highlighting some of the more notable examples of the Republican insisting he’s the world’s least racist person, a list Trump continues to add to. (He said it twice just this week, and the week isn’t over.)
As a rule, those who don’t have a problem with race find it unnecessary to repeatedly tell skeptics that they don’t have a problem with race.
Regardless, Trump clings to the claim, even quoting himself saying it in a tweet yesterday. Perhaps the president keeps repeating the line because he knows most Americans don’t believe him.
President Donald Trump is racist, American voters say 51 – 45 percent in a Quinnipiac University National Poll released [Tuesday].
White voters are divided as 46 percent say he is racist and 50 percent say he is not, the independent Quinnipiac University National Poll finds. Trump is racist black voters say 80 – 11 percent and Hispanic voters say 55 – 44 percent.
A Washington Post analysis added some relevant details from the Quinnipiac findings, including, “Most independents think Trump is racist. Most white women think Trump is racist. Most whites with a college degree think Trump is racist.”
This comes on the heels of a national Fox News poll that also found most Americans found the president’s recent attacks on Democratic lawmakers of color to be racist.
A reporter mentioned the poll results to Trump this week and asked for his response. “You know why? Because the fake news doesn’t report it properly,” the Republican replied. “People like you. The fake news does not report it properly.”
In other words, in the president’s mind, most Americans think he’s racist because of journalists. Trump, of course, couldn’t possibly bear responsibility for how he’s perceived because he’s “the least racist person there is anywhere in the world.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."