What Would He Have to Do or Say

To Prove He’s a Racist?

by Mark M. Bello

After a video circulated online depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, some Republicans—including Donald Trump—bent over backwards to instance, once again, that Trump is not a racist.

How about we stop arguing in abstractions and deal in facts?

Let’s be clear: This is not an opinion piece. I make no inference or “media spin.” What follows is a non-exhaustive list of documented things Trump has said or done over the course of his public life—long before politics, long before Twitter, long before he became president and was held accountable for his words and deeds, and long before “Trump Derangement Syndrome” became a slogan. So, here’s my heartfelt question:

What, exactly, would Trump (or anyone else who behaves like Trump) have to do or say for you to finally call him a racist?

A Brief, Inconvenient Timeline

1. Housing Discrimination (1970s)

Trump and his father were sued by the Nixon Justice Department for systematically refusing to rent apartments to Black tenants in New York City. The case ended in a consent decree requiring them to stop discriminating—without an admission of guilt, but also without vindication. This wasn’t hearsay. It wasn’t “politics.” It was federal law enforcement.

2. The Central Park Five (1989)

After five Black and Latino teenagers were wrongfully accused of raping a jogger, Trump took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the death penalty.

Years later—after DNA evidence proved their innocence and the real perpetrator confessed—Trump refused to apologize and insisted they were still guilty. To this day!

3. Birtherism (2011–2016)

Trump became the loudest promoter of the racist conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Trump demanded Obama produce documents that Trump himself had never been asked to produce—and continued to cast doubt even after proof was provided. This wasn’t skepticism. It was racialized delegitimization.

4. “Mexicans Are Rapists” (2015)

Launching his presidential campaign, Trump declared that Mexican immigrants were bringing drugs, crime, and rapists into the U.S.—with the now-infamous aside: “And some, I assume, are good people.” That wasn’t policy language. It was ethnic smearing.

5. The Muslim Ban (2017)

Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” He then implemented it as president—rebranded, revised, and litigated, but rooted in the same premise: collective guilt based on religion and ethnicity.

6. “Very Fine People” (2017)

After white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, chanting “Jews will not replace us,” Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides.” One side included neo-Nazis. The other side consisted of Jewish Americans. There is no moral symmetry here.

7. “Shithole Countries” (2018)

Trump asked why the U.S. accepts immigrants from “shithole countries” like Haiti and African nations instead of places like Norway. The pattern was unmistakable. So was the target.

8. “Go Back to Where You Came From” (2019)

Trump told four congresswomen of color—three of them U.S.-born citizens—to “go back” to other countries. That line has only one meaning in American history, and everyone knows it.

9. Pardons, Silence, and Signals

Trump routinely defended, excused, or amplified figures aligned with white nationalism, while attacking civil rights leaders, Black athletes, and protesters demanding equal treatment under the law. He doesn’t just tolerate racism. Henormalizes it.

10. The Ape Imagery—Today

Depicting Black people as apes is one of the oldest, most explicit racist tropes in history. That this still needs to be explained in 2026 is itself an indictment.

Some Sincere Questions for Trump Defenders:

• If housing discrimination doesn’t count, what does?
• If demanding the execution of innocent Black teenagers doesn’t count, what does?
• If calling immigrants rapists doesn’t count, what does?
• If telling American citizens to “go back where they came from” doesn’t count, what does?
• If depicting Black leaders as animals doesn’t count, what does?

Short of wearing a white hood and burning a cross on the White House lawn, what would this president have to do or say to prove to you that he’s a bigot?

Because . . . at some point . . . the question must stop being about Trump and will begin being about you.

What would he have to do or say that he hasn’t said or done?

Mark M. Bello is an attorney and award-winning author of the Zachary Blake Legal Thriller Series, ripped-from-the-headlines, realistic fiction that speaks truth to power and champions the rights of citizens in our justice system. These novels are dedicated to the social justice movement. They educate, spark discussion, and inspire readers to action. One of these novels, Betrayal High, was written in response to school shootings. For more information, please visit www.markmbello.com.