Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump; former President Jimmy Carter. (Photos: Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images; John Bazemor/AP)

Former President Jimmy Carter had some tough words on Monday for Donald Trump.

Carter told the New York Times that Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, had “tapped a waiting reservoir there of inherent racism.”

He also said Trump had violated human rights with some of his incendiary comments on the campaign trail. According to the Times, Carter cited Trump’s proposal to bar Muslims from the U.S. and his claim that Mexico is sending criminals across the U.S. border.

“When you single out any particular group of people for secondary citizenship status, that’s a violation of basic human rights,” the former president said.

Carter, 91, gave the interview to the Times in order to highlight a Baptist conference he is hosting this fall to address race issues and social inequality. He told the paper that he has seen an increase of open racism.

“I don’t feel good, except for one thing: I think the country has been reawakened the last two or three years to the fact that we haven’t resolved the race issue adequately,” he said.

He further said, “I think there’s a heavy reaction among some of the racially conscious Republicans against an African-American being president.”