Stephen Colbert: ‘Fairly Simple Equation to Say’ Trump Spreading ‘White Nationalism’

Stephen Colbert told CNN anchor Anderson Cooper that it’s safe to say President Donald Trump has endorsed the message of white nationalism, in an extended interview that aired on Thursday.

Asked if he believes the president is a “white supremacist,” Stephen Colbert said “He called himself a nationalist.” The late-night host pointed to comments Trump made last year in which the Washington Post quoted him as saying he wanted fewer people from “shithole” countries immigrating to the U.S. — but Colbert failed to mention the WaPo piece noting that Trump also said “he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt they help the United States economically.”

“I think it’s a fairly simple equation to say that is a white nationalist,” Colbert said, while failing to acknowledge that Trump wants people from Asian countries ranging from Israel to Yemen to Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Japan, among dozens of others.

The former Comedy Central host went onto to say “It’s not like we’re indulging some madman,” when Cooper asked if Colbert thinks he spend too much time talking about President Trump on his CBS show.

“He’s the president of the united states. Everything he says has an effect,” Colbert continued. “It is right and proper to pay attention to everything he says, because everything he says has an effect.”

“We don’t know his actual skin color, we don’t know what his hair is like, we don’t know what he’s worth,” Colbert said. “For a guy who always likes to have a camera pointed at him and likes to talk about himself, there’s very little we know about him.”

Earlier in the interview, Stephen Colbert said “It would be hard for me to be properly respectful of the office because I think that he is so disrespectful of the office,” when asked if he’d have President Trump on his show again. “It’s very hard to perceive him as I want want to perceive a president. So I think just for safety sake, it wouldn’t be a good idea.”

Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor and author of the forthcoming book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know, from HarperCollins. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.