Donald Trump insists he’s not a racist. This is, increasingly, a bit beside the point. What is excruciatingly clear, and what matters most right now, is that he has chosen to ground his politics and his presidency in fomenting racial hatred. Whatever he may feel in his bones, he is an avid race warrior.

That is the meaning of the chant of “Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!” that resounded at his rally in Greenville, N.C., on Wednesday evening. An arena full of President Trump’s supporters roared those words after Mr. Trump aimed their animosity at Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who immigrated from Somalia. He smeared her as trafficking in “vicious anti-Semitic screeds” and as a left-wing radical who sympathizes with Al Qaeda, hates America and “looks down with contempt on the hard-working Americans.”

As the xenophobic chant engulfed him, the president paused, basking in the moment. He then went on to attack the three other freshman representatives — women of color, all — who are members of the so-called squad. He suggested that Rashida Tlaib of Michigan “does not love” America and said that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York had declared “contemporary America — that’s you, that’s me, that’s all of us” — to be “garbage.”

On Thursday, as the backlash grew, including even some criticism from congressional Republicans, Mr. Trump scurried to rewrite the scene. “I was not happy with it. I disagree with it,” he said of the chant, claiming to have tried to cut it off by “speaking very quickly.” This is audacious gaslighting, even for this president. For those interested in the truth, video of the episode is a Google search away.