Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson said Friday in North Carolina that it’s impossible for President Donald Trump to be a racist because the blacks and Hispanics who work at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida “love him.”

Speaking at an event promoting the administration’s Opportunity Zone program, which is aimed at increasing economic opportunity and growth in underserved areas of the country, Carson remarked:

“He’s a man who is deeply driven by a sense of kindness and compassion.

“You know, talking to the people who drive the cars and park the cars at Mar-a-Lago, they love him — the people who wash the dishes, because he’s kind and compassionate.”

If those who work for Trump “love” him, it might have something to do with the fact that he’s paying their salaries, but Carson didn’t bother to mention that.

Carson then added:

“When he bought Mar-a-Lago, he was the one who fought for Jews and blacks to be included in the clubs that were trying to exclude them. You know, people say he’s a racist, he is not a racist.”

The Department of Justice certainly thought Trump and his father, Fred, were racist when they accused them of refusing to rent to African-Americans and Hispanics back in the 1970s. Politico reported on the matter back in 2017, shortly after FBI files were released as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request:

“In October 1973, the Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit against Trump Management Company, Donald Trump and his father Fred Trump, alleging that African-Americans and Puerto Ricans were systematically excluded from apartments.”

And Trump himself has certainly sounded very much like a racist over the years:

“Last year Trump picked feuds with several lawmakers of color using racist rhetoric. And just a week ago he expanded his administration’s travel ban to include several more African countries including Nigeria, drawing renewed attention to his past remarks about ‘shithole countries’ in Africa and his specific complaint that Nigerians coming to the U.S. will never ‘go back to their huts.'”

Donald Trump is worried that African-Americans and Hispanics are going to vote in record numbers come November and register their disgust for him and his policies. That alone could provide the margin of victory for whoever winds up being Trump’s Democratic opponent.

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