Trevor Noah stopped just short of calling President Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE a “white supremacist” in an interview with BBC Newsnight in which "The Daily Show" host said he thinks that Trump “prefers white people over black people" based on his words and actions in the White House.

“I don’t know if Donald Trump is a white supremacist. I do know that he prefers white people over black people,” Noah said.

“I do know that he has specifically gone out of his way with his companies to oppress black people, I do know that he hasn’t been as quick to react in the aid of black people as he has with others, I do know that he has supported and continues to retweet white supremacists on his Twitter account.”

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Noah added that he thinks the president is living in a world where people are “more offended at you calling them a racist than at the fact that they are a racist.”

Trump has battled accusations of racism before his presidency that go back to his years as a businessman in the early 1970s, when he was sued by the Justice Department over allegations of not renting an apartment to a black couple.

More accusations came when Trump paid for advertisements in New York papers in 1989 that called for the execution of five African-American men accused of raping and beating a woman in Central Park. The so-called Central Park Five were found guilty in 1990, but their convictions were overturned after DNA evidence showed another man was telling the truth that he was the sole perpetrator.

More recently as president, Trump has come under fire for an equivocal response to the deadly violence at a white supremacist marches in Charlottesville, Va., and for his handling of recovery efforts after Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria.