Donald Trump is racist. Or, as The New York Times put it, “Trump fans the flames of a racial fire”; “plays with fire” when it comes to race; “fanned the flames” of white resentments “overtly, relentlessly and even eagerly”; and “appears to be drawing a deep line between the white, native-born America of his memory and the ethnically diverse, increasingly foreign-born country he is presiding over.” All those euphemisms are from a single article, though the prize for top Times euphemism of the day goes to the article that employed “racially infused.”
The Times knows what’s going on. What’s going on is something the paper quoted, but still refuses to be up-front about: “Trump has not only always been a racist, but anyone around him who denies it, is lying,” former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino president Jack O’Donnell said. “Donald Trump makes racist comments all the time. Once you know him, he speaks his mind about race very openly.”
Enough with the tap-dancing around it. Donald Trump is racist. His tweets on Sunday were racist, just the latest in a long line of racist things Trump has said and done, going back decades. It’s not a mystery. It’s not a subtle infusion. It’s the whole damn thing right out there in the open, and the thing it is is racism.