Trump's white supremacy backfires, most Americans think he's racist

Donald Trump is a racist, and despite his own best efforts and the work of the revolving cast of incompetent subordinates around him, he cannot hide this from America.

A new poll from AP-NORC found that 57 percent of Americans believe that Trump is a racist. A similar percentage said they believe his policies have been bad for Muslims and Latinos, while 47 percent believe those policies have been bad for black Americans.

Trump recently described himself to reporters as the “least racist person you have ever interviewed,” but this poll and his actions show that few people buy the spin.

The fact that he had to make such a defensive statement in the first place only goes to show why Americans feel the way they do about him. It was in response to the controversy that followed Trump calling countries in Africa with large non-white populations “shitholes.”

Racism is central to Trump’s identity and is the clear motivator behind some of the worst behavior he has indulged in since obtaining the presidency. He referred to Nazis as “very fine people,” defended monuments to pro-slavery Confederate soldiers, and pushed for a ban on Muslim travel to the United States.

His ill-advised idea of a “wall” between the U.S. and Mexico is infused with racism. He’s described Mexican people as rapists and accused immigrants of simply being marauding bands of criminals.

What hurts Trump is that despite indulging in racist behavior, it is extremely unpopular to unabashedly admit to being a racist. He and his team, notably press secretary Sarah Sanders, have pushed back against the notion that Trump is a racist.

It hasn’t worked. His low approval rating shows that Americans do not want a racist president, and polls like this explicitly show that he is viewed as a racist president.

He has promoted himself for years as a genius marketer, but when it comes to the most important sales job of his entire life, Trump has utterly failed to convince America that a racist is not a racist.