Greenbelt, Maryland (CNN) The current "political environment" is so toxic that a large number of minorities may not reply to the 2020 Census, the Trump administration admitted in court Thursday, even without the addition of a controversial question asking about citizenship status.

Justice Department attorney Josh Gardner was arguing that critics of the proposed question had not proven definitively that the question itself, rather than the nation's political discourse, would drive non-responses -- which both sides acknowledged were likely.

"That has nothing to do with the citizenship question per se," Gardner told a federal court in Maryland. "They may be less inclined to trust the government" or the Trump administration.

The striking admission reveals the administration's own thinking about its standing in minority communities, despite the President casting himself as a boon for minorities' economic success.

Judge George Hazel probed Gardner's logic to see if he was conceding a key argument for the plaintiffs who want the question nixed: that the citizenship question would contribute to a less accurate count and the resulting disenfranchisement.

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