A

• [Donald Trump] seems to harbor racist feelings about people of color from other parts of the world.
  • Jim Acosta, as quoted in "CNN's Acosta: Trump 'seems to harbor racist feelings'" (11 January 2018), by Brett Samuels, The Hill

B

• Trump Is a Racist. Period.
  • Charles M. Blow, as quoted in "Trump Is a Racist. Period" (14 January 2018), by Charles M. Blow, The New York Times

• What Trump is doing has popped up periodically, but in modern times, no president has been so racially insensitive and shown outright disdain for people who aren't white.
  • Douglas Brinkley, as quoted in "Trump's own words revive debate over whether he's racist", AP News

• [Donald Trump is] clearly racist... It fits into a pattern that we have seen since the beginning of his career, maybe through his father's career, frankly. There's been a consistency, pattern of harsh judgment against black and brown people.
  • David Brooks, as quoted in "Shields and Brooks on Trump's 's***hole' comments, 'Fire and Fury' fallout" (14 January 2018), PBS Newshour

C

• We have a racist in the Oval Office.
  • John Cassidy, "A Racist in the Oval Office" (12 January 2018), The New Yorker

• Let me put it this way, I think he is very eager not to upset the racists who like him. Too eager.
  • Mona Charen, as quoted in "Ep. 261: Kavanaugh, Anonymous, and Us" (6 September 2018), Need to Know, Ricochet

• In 2015, Trump launched his own campaign for President with another racist lie. He described Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals. And he accused the Mexican government of actively sending them across the border. None of that is true. Oh, and by the way, Mexico’s not paying for his wall either. If it ever gets built, you can be sure that American taxpayers will be stuck with the bill. Since then, there’s been a steady stream of bigotry.
  • Hillary Clinton, speech in Reno, Nevada. Transcript by Vox, "Hillary Clinton Speech Alt Right" (August 25, 2016)

• Trump claims he's surprised his election has unleashed a barrage of hate across the country. But he shouldn't be. It's the predictable result of the campaign he waged. Rather than feign surprise, Mr. Trump should take responsibility for what's occurring, forcefully reject hate and bigotry, reach out to the communities he's injured, and follow his words with actions to heal the wounds his words have opened.
  • Richard Cohen, as quoted in "Trump's election led to 'barrage of hate', report finds" (November 2016), by Mazin Sidahmed, The Guardian

• 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.
  • Susan Collins, as quoted in "Mainers defend Somali neighbors against Trump" (5 August 2016), The Boston Globe

F

• For the fourth year in a row, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that tracks hate groups, reports that hate and domestic extremism are rising in an unabated trend. The center found a 30 percent increase in U.S. hate groups over the past four years and a 7 percent increase in hate groups in 2018 alone, according to the center's annual "Year in Hate and Extremism" report. The group designated 1,020 organizations as hate groups in 2018, a high of at least 20 years.
  The watchdog group blames President Trump, his administration, right-wing media outlets and the ease of spreading hate on social media platforms for the alarming increase. The growth, it says, is largely driven by "hysteria over losing a white-majority nation to demographic change."
  "The numbers tell a striking story — that this president is not simply a polarizing figure but a radicalizing one," Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project, said in a statement. "Rather than trying to tamp down hate, as presidents of both parties have done, President Trump elevates it — with both his rhetoric and his policies. In doing so, he's given people across America the go-ahead to to act on their worst instincts."
  • Leila Fadel, “U.S. Hate Groups Rose 30 Percent In Recent Years, Watchdog Group Reports”, All Things Considered, NPR, (February 20, 2019)

H

• The facts here are clear: These men were exonerated. Another man has admitted to committing the crime, as proven by DNA evidence. Trump rushed to judgment on the case, has refused to admit he is wrong and continues to peddle yet another racist lie.
  • Maya Harris, on Trump's assertion that the men originally convicted of the Central Park jogger case are guilty despite their subsequent exoneration and despite the identification, arrest, and conviction of the actual perpetrator.
  • "Hillary for America Statement on Trump’s Comments Related to Central Park Jogger Case" (October 7 2016)

• There should be little doubt about US President Donald Trump's views on race, despite his occasional 'denials', assertions of 'fake news', and/or his semantic distinctions. His election campaign theme was effectively a promise to 'Make America Great Again; America First and Only' and – nod, nod, wink, wink.
  • John Hewson, "No place for the race card in the political pack, but Trump plays it anyway" (January 2018), The Sydney Morning Herald

K

• [I]n many ways, he embodies nearly every aspect of a racist. He's someone who regularly expresses racist ideas, like Latinx immigrants are invading this country, that Mexicans are animals, that black people live in hell, that their communities are infested. But then he simultaneously is supporting policies that specifically target racial groups. We're seeing what's happening at the southern border. We see the ways in which his policies, he's not seeking to protect black people being killed by police. We can see the Muslim ban.
  And then when you put that all together, when we charge him with being racist, what does he say? He says, no, no. I'm not racist. I'm actually the least-racist person you've ever interviewed. I'm actually the least-racist person in the world. And so his consistent denial of his racism is the heartbeat of racism.
  • Ibram X. Kendi, as interviewed by Rachel Martin in “How Racism Has Evolved Over The Last 2 U.S. Presidencies” (August 14, 2019), NPR Morning Edition.

• I don't see what else we can call him but a racist.
  • Nicholas Kristof, as quoted in "Mr. Trump, Meet a Hero Whom You Maligned" (12 January 2018), by Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times

L

Do you think he’d lose support from his base? Do you think he’d pay a price for lying about the tape’s existence? Or for using the N-word? I do not. Everything we know about the president's base supporters suggests that there is no straw that will break the camel's back—only goalposts, receding constantly to the horizon. ~ Jonathan V. Last

• [N]o matter what your feelings are about Trump, you should hope that these tapes, if they do exist, never see the light of day. It sounds counterintuitive. But let’s game out—honestly—what we think would happen if such a tape of the future president of the United States surfaced tomorrow. Do you think he’d lose support from his base? Do you think he’d pay a price for lying about the tape’s existence? Or for using the N-word? I do not. Everything we know about the president's base supporters suggests that there is no straw that will break the camel's back—only goalposts, receding constantly to the horizon.
  • Jonathan V. Last, "Let’s Hope There Is No Tape of Trump Using the N-Word" (2018), The Weekly Standard

M

• [Donald Trump is] this racist 94-year-old grandpa.
  • Marshall B. Mathers, as quoted in "Eminem Calls Donald Trump a “Racist 94-Year-Old Grandpa” in a Freestyle so Fire, Trump’s Gonna Need Ice for Those Burns: Political Eminem is my new favorite Eminem." (11 October 2017), by Andrea Wurzburger, VH1

• His hateful rhetoric has no place in the White House.
  • Jim McGovern, as quoted in "Lawmakers condemn Trump's 'shithole' remark" (January 2018), by Sophie Tatum and Ashley Killough, CNN

• Everything is a racial stereotype with him half the time; we've got to admit that about Trump.
  • Mike Murphy, interview with Bill Kristol (20 June 2017), transcript

• [T]he larger moral cowardice that has overtaken the party... Trump's shtick is that he's the grievance candidate... He's focused on the economically squeezed Caucasian voter... He is speaking to that rage. Mexican rapists, clever Chinese traders, African American people as dogs. That's Trump's DNA.
  • Mike Murphy, as quoted in "'I'm not going there': As Trump hurls racial invective, most Republicans stay silent" (18 August 2018), by Ashley Parker and Robert Costa, The Washington Post

S

• We have a president, and I say this without any joy in my heart, who is a racist. It’s hard to believe that we have a president of the United States who is, in fact, a racist.
  • Bernie Sanders, "Bernie Sanders calls Trump a racist before Apollo event" (05 April 2019), AP News

• Perhaps Trump is a racist. Perhaps not. Either way, we can have a productive conversation about whether particular Trump statements or actions are racist. But we can't have a productive conversation that starts from the premise that Trump is a racist overall, and that every action he takes and every statement he makes is therefore covered with the patina of racism. That conversation is about insults, not truth.
  • Ben Shapiro, "What's the Point of Labeling Trump a Racist?" (17 January 2018), National Review

W

• Trump is a racial arsonist who encourages bigotry and xenophobia to rouse his base and advance his electoral prospects. In this, he inspires imitators.
  • Joe Walsh, "Joe Walsh: Trump Needs a Primary Challenge" (14 August 2019), The New York Times

• This is racism, plain and simple, and we need to call it that.
  • Tim Walz, as quoted in "Trump's 's---hole' remark sparks bipartisan backlash B" (January 2018), by John Bowden, The Hill

• He claims that he's bringing people together but make no mistake, he is a dangerous, unprincipled, divisive, and shameful racist.
  • Maxine Waters, as quoted in "Maxine Waters Delivers Scathing SOTU Response: 'Make No Mistake. Trump Is a Dangerous Racist'", by Tess Koman, Cosmopolitan

• [M]y own view is that Donald Trump is incapable of being a racist in the traditional sense of that word, because racism is derived from a perverted and misapplied sense of loyalty, a sentiment from which President Trump is manifestly immune.
  • Kevin D. Williamson, "Trump’s Omar Comments and Our Eroding Sense of Citizenship" (21 July 2019), National Review

• He [Donald Trump] doesn't mind being called a racist, because he is one.
  • Rick Wilson, as quoted in "Rick Wilson on the Battle of the Framing" (24 July 2019), by Charlie Sykes, The Bulwark