Most Americans considered Trumpâs âshitholeâ comments racist
President Trump speaks to reporters after the Congressional Republican Leadership retreat at Camp David  Md.  on Jan. 6. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
During an Oval Office meeting with senators from both parties last week   a frustrated President Trump  lashed out at the idea of allowing immigrants from poorer countries to enter the United States.
âWhy are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?â  he  asked about Haiti  African nations and El Salvador  according to people in the room. The Washington Postâs reporting on his comment immediately began days of analysis of what he might have meant  if he actually used a different word (such as âshithouseâ) and  naturally  what he might have meant by that word  if he used it.
The question also started another line of questioning that unfolded on Google. On the afternoon of Jan. 11  after The Post report  searches for âis  Trump  racistâ spiked in the United States.
In the case of Trumpâs comments about the mostly nonwhite countries from which he wanted to curtail immigration (unlike the mostly white country of Norway)  we have a new poll from Quinnipiac University that tells us just how likely Americans were to consider them racist.
Nearly 6 in 10 Americans think that Trumpâs comments were racist. That includes majorities of independents and nearly all Democrats. It includes just over half of whites  7 in 10 Hispanics and nearly 9 in 10 black Americans. White men  Republicans and white people without college degrees were more likely to say that the comments werenât racist.
Which makes sense. After all  the groups that said Trumpâs comments were racist were also mostly the same people that told Quinnipiac that he doesnât respect people of color as much as he respects white people.
When I say they were âmostlyâ the same people  thatâs an understatement. Ninety-three percent of those who said  Trump  doesnât respect people of color as much as  he  does whites also said the comments were racist; 82 percent of those who think  Trump  does respect people of color said that the comments werenât racist.
The overlap between views of Trumpâs comments and his broader views of race runs across demographic groups. The diagonal line below marks the place where views of Trumpâs comments and his general attitude toward people of color are equivalent. Each dot represents a demographic group. They are all tightly clustered around that diagonal line â meaning that the percentage of each group holding the view that  Trump  respects people of color less is about the same as the percent saying his comments were racist.
Quinnipiac asked the question about respect in December  too  and the patterns were similar â although the percentage of some groups that said  Trump  respected people of color less were slightly lower. This is probably a function of margins of error more than anything  although the fact that this most recent poll was conducted over a holiday weekend may have added some variability  as people may have been harder to reach.
What this suggests is that views of Trumpâs comments largely overlapped with peopleâs existing views of  Trump . Perhaps thatâs because those who viewed him as showing less respect to people of color also then were less charitable in their interpretation of his comments; perhaps itâs because the comments were hard to interpret in a more charitable way.
It also suggests that  barring  Trump  explicitly endorsing Nazism or white supremacy  interpretation of racially loaded comments by the president will continue to be seen through peopleâs existing lenses of his attitudes toward race.
President Trump speaks to reporters after the Congressional Republican Leadership retreat at Camp David  Md.  on Jan. 6. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
During an Oval Office meeting with senators from both parties last week    [TGT] lashed out at the idea of allowing immigrants from poorer countries to enter the United States.
âWhy are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?â   [TGT]   asked about Haiti  African nations and El Salvador  according to people in the room. The Washington Postâs reporting on  [TGT]  comment immediately began days of analysis of what  [TGT]  might have meant  if  [TGT]  actually used a different word (such as âshithouseâ) and  naturally  what  [TGT]  might have meant by that word  if  [TGT]  used it.
The question also started another line of questioning that unfolded on Google. On the afternoon of Jan. 11  after The Post report  searches for âis   [TGT] racistâ spiked in the United States.
In the case of Trumpâs comments about the mostly nonwhite countries from which he wanted to curtail immigration (unlike the mostly white country of Norway)  we have a new poll from Quinnipiac University that tells us just how likely Americans were to consider them racist.
Nearly 6 in 10 Americans think that Trumpâs comments were racist. That includes majorities of independents and nearly all Democrats. It includes just over half of whites  7 in 10 Hispanics and nearly 9 in 10 black Americans. White men  Republicans and white people without college degrees were more likely to say that the comments werenât racist.
Which makes sense. After all  the groups that said Trumpâs comments were racist were also mostly the same people that told Quinnipiac that he doesnât respect people of color as much as he respects white people.
When I say they were âmostlyâ the same people  thatâs an understatement. Ninety-three percent of those who said   [TGT]   doesnât respect people of color as much as  he  does whites also said the comments were racist; 82 percent of those who think   [TGT]   does respect people of color said that the comments werenât racist.
The overlap between views of Trumpâs comments and his broader views of race runs across demographic groups. The diagonal line below marks the place where views of Trumpâs comments and his general attitude toward people of color are equivalent. Each dot represents a demographic group. They are all tightly clustered around that diagonal line â meaning that the percentage of each group holding the view that   [TGT] respects people of color less is about the same as the percent saying his comments were racist.
Quinnipiac asked the question about respect in December  too  and the patterns were similar â although the percentage of some groups that said   [TGT]   respected people of color less were slightly lower. This is probably a function of margins of error more than anything  although the fact that this most recent poll was conducted over a holiday weekend may have added some variability  as people may have been harder to reach.
What this suggests is that views of Trumpâs comments largely overlapped with peopleâs existing views of  Trump . Perhaps thatâs because those who viewed him as showing less respect to people of color also then were less charitable in their interpretation of his comments; perhaps itâs because the comments were hard to interpret in a more charitable way.
It also suggests that  barring   [TGT] explicitly endorsing Nazism or white supremacy  interpretation of racially loaded comments by the president will continue to be seen through peopleâs existing lenses of his attitudes toward race.