“He’s of Mexican heritage,” Donald Trump said. “And he’s very proud of it, as I am of where I come from.” | Getty Trump triples down on attack on judge's ethnicity

Donald Trump expanded on his attacks against a federal judge’s heritage Friday, arguing that the border wall the presumptive Republican nominee has put at the center of his 2016 campaign has made him the subject of unfair treatment in a California civil fraud suit over Trump University, his defunct real estate seminar.

Pressed by CNN’s Jake Tapper, Trump repeated his claim that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage creates "an inherent conflict of interest.”


“Jake, I'm building a wall. OK? I'm building a wall. I'm trying to keep business out of Mexico. Mexico's fine,” Trump said.

“But he’s an American,” Tapper responded.

“He’s of Mexican heritage,” Trump said. “And he’s very proud of it, as I am of where I come from.”

“But he’s an American,” Tapper reiterated. “You keep talking about it’s a conflict of interest because of Mexico.”

Later in the extended back-and-forth on the issue, the CNN host asked Trump whether his assertion that Curiel’s heritage makes him unable to do his job is “the definition of racism.” Trump said it was not.

“He’s proud of his heritage, I respect him for that,” Trump said. “We are building a wall. He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings. Rulings that people can't even believe. This case should have ended years ago in summary judgment.”