In support of Donald Trump’s latest utterance of “I am not a racist,” Republicans have gone from feigning deafness to declaring that Democrats are hearing things. As with every other incident showing that Trump holds positions that are overtly white nationalist and racist to the core, Republicans have worked hard and fast … to accept racism.

Trump’s declaration that at least one-half of the world consists of “shithole” nations drew official condemnation from Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon … and so on. More or less everyone, everywhere.

Governments and citizens across the world recoiled on Friday with disgust, outrage and sadness at reports that President Trump had described Haiti and unspecified African nations as “shithole countries” during a meeting with members of Congress on Thursday about immigration, asking why the American government would want to admit their citizens as immigrants.

“Recoiled with disgust” is certainly the appropriate response to Trump’s statement. The issue with what Trump said goes well beyond language. How Trump used that language as a bullhorn to make his distorted, shocking, and deeply racist views absolutely clear to everyone present is far more disturbing. The word is vile enough, but it only underlined his statements wishing we had more immigrants from countries like Norway, while declaring that he wanted to throw Haitians out and stop immigration from Africa.

Republicans have reacted to those statements by declaring what Trump said “kitchen table talk” or even embracing Trump’s racist label. But the statements from two Republican senators who were actually in the room show more than just the willingness of Republicans to accept crude, racist positions. They show how the cult of personality, which is all that remains of their party, automatically accepts anything that comes from Trump’s lips.