Donald Trump’s comments directed at a Hispanic federal judge was racist, say a majority of respondents in a new YouGov survey.
Trump offered race-based criticism directed at the presiding judge in a lawsuit involving Trump University. Several Republicans have lamented Trump’s actions, but he has not retracted or apologized for the remarks.
Approximately 51 percent of those surveyed by YouGov said Trump’s comments about the judge were racist, including 81 percent of Democratic respondents and plurality of independents, 44 percentage points.
But 65 percent of Republicans indicated that Trump’s criticism of the judge was not racist, and a plurality of Republicans, 43 percentage points, thought he was right to complain. A majority of voters surveyed, however, think Trump was in the wrong.
The poll numbers suggest the obstacles Trump could face in presenting an inclusive message that would build his coalition going into November. While white voters split nearly even on whether the remarks were racist—43 percent of voters called it racist, 40 percentage points said it was not — Hispanics overwhelmingly viewed it as racist. Sixty-nine percent of Hispanics surveyed view Trump’s comments as racist.
The YouGov survey polled 1,000 people online from June 6-8 with a four-percentage-point margin of error.
