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Donald Trump Finally Admits His Campaign Is Racist

He's no longer pretending.
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the Trump Tower on May 31, 2016 in New York. / AFP / Jewel SAMAD (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)
JEWEL SAMAD via Getty Images
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the Trump Tower on May 31, 2016 in New York. / AFP / Jewel SAMAD (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

Ever since he launched his campaign by calling Mexicans "rapists" and drug dealers, Donald Trump has insisted that he loves minorities and they love him right back.

"I'm going to do great with the Hispanics," Trump insisted after tweeting a photo of himself eating a taco bowl on Cinco de Mayo. The image was accompanied by his oft-repeated phrase, "I love Hispanics!"

And despite having strong support from white supremacists, Trump has also reassured everyone that black people like him just as much.

To prove his point, Trump singled out a single African-American supporter at his rally last week in California, telling the crowd to "look at my African-American."

But the presumptive GOP nominee is now largely dropping this pretense and admitting that yes, his campaign is actually racist against certain groups of people.

Trump has been taking heat for going after the ethnic heritage of a federal judge, Gonzalo Curiel, who is handling two lawsuits against Trump University. Former employees have called the for-profit school a “fraudulent scheme“ that “preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.”

Last week, Curiel ordered the release of embarrassing internal documents, which set off Trump's anger. Trump called him a "hater" and said he believed the judge was “Mexican."

Curiel was born in Indiana to parents who emigrated from Mexico.

Trump has stood by his criticism of Curiel, saying that because of his ethnicity, Curiel cannot be impartial.

"He's a Mexican," Trump said in a Friday CNN interview. "We're building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings -- rulings that people can’t even believe."

In other words, Trump is admitting that he does indeed have a problem with "the Hispanics" -- which goes against what he's been saying in speeches for months.

On Sunday, Trump also acknowledged that he has alienated Muslim-American voters with his call to ban all Muslims from entering the United States over terrorism concerns, saying on CBS's "Face the Nation" that "it's possible" a Muslim judge would be biased against him.

Paul Manafort, Trump's chief strategist, recently told The Huffington Post that Trump is unlikely to pick a woman or minority as a running mate because that would be seen as "pandering."

If he were to become president, Trump would have the power to nominate candidates to the Supreme Court and other spots on the federal bench. But between his comments about race, religion and gender, the people Trump thinks would be unbiased enough to serve may make up a very narrow slice of the population.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

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