A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who wrote a biography of President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE said the president doesn’t view nonwhite people “as people.”

David Cay Johnston wrote the 2016 bestseller “The Making of Donald Trump” and has reportedly known Trump for over two decades.

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He appeared on Dean Obeidallah‘s SiriusXM show on Friday to discuss Trump’s false claim that 3,000 people did not die in Puerto Rico following massive hurricanes last year.

“Donald does not see people who are not white as people,” Johnston said. “And he’s been like this for a long, long time. This not a newly acquired or strange thing.”

He pointed to an anecdote from John R. O’Donnell’s book, detailing his time spent as the former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino president.

O’Donnell claimed that Trump refused to have a black accountant.

“The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day,” Trump reportedly said.

Judicial proceedings against the president and longtime New York businessman have found that he discriminated against blacks, women, Asians and Puerto Ricans, Johnston added.

Trump tweeted Thursday without evidence that the Puerto Rican death toll from Hurricane Maria had been inflated by Democrats to make him look bad.

"3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths," Trump tweeted. "As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000."

His claim contradicted recent studies that found the death toll to be significantly higher than originally reported.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló in a statement on Thursday said "it is a fact" that 2,975 people died following the devastating hurricane.