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Just over half of all Americans think Donald Trump is racist, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, including a majority of people identifying as I ndependents.




The poll results break down almost predictably along racial and other key demographic lines, USA Today reports, but a clear majority—51 percent—of all Americans told pollsters they think the leader of the free world is a racist.

Another 45 percent said that he is not, while 5 percent said they don’t know.

As CNN notes, it’s an amazing(ly scary) finding, especially when one recognizes that some 50 years ago, when Americans were asked their thoughts about then-presidential wannabe former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a Harris poll found a smaller proportion of Americans, 41 percent, said he was racist—and he was an open proponent of segregation.


Now, it will probably come as no surprise that how one viewed Trump seemed to be predicated upon one’s demographic, USA Today shared, with clear majorities of blacks (80 percent), Latinos (55 percent), Democrats (86 percent) and women (59 percent) calling the occupant of the Oval Office racist.

However, when it came to those politically coveted I ndependents, 56 percent called Trump racist, compared with only 38 percent who said he was not.

There was also a religious (or, rather, non-religious) component to the findings, with 63 percent of those identifying as not religious saying that Trump is a racist.

Almost 8 out of every 10 evangelical Christians (a group Trump has openly courted) told Quinnipiac that he was not racist, while those identifying as Catholic were split on the issue.


Interestingly, when it came to just white men and women, Quinnipiac found that a majority of white men had Trump’s back on the racist issue, with 58 percent saying that he wasn’t. However, a slight majority of white women—53 percent—found that Trump was racist.