President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is "proud" to be a nationalist, asserting the provocative word should be used more often — and denying it carries any racial undertones.
During a briefing with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump was grilled about calling himself a nationalist at a Houston, Texas, rally Monday — with one journalist asking if the president was "sending coded language or a dog whistle to some American out there that what you really mean is that you are a white nationalist."
"I've never even heard that," Trump shot back. "I cannot imagine that. I'm a nationalist. No, I never heard that theory about being a nationalist. I have heard them all. I'm somebody that loves our country."
In his explanation of the term, Trump framed the meaning in the context of international trade, complaining "immensely wealthy" countries, such as Saudi Arabia, do not reimburse the United States for military protection, that other nations do not adequately contribute to global alliances like NATO, and that certain countries have put up unfair trade barriers that harm the U.S.
"All I want for our country is to be treated well, to be treated with respect," Trump told reporters. "For many years, other countries that are allies of ours, so-called allies, they have not treated our country fairly, so in that sense I am absolutely a nationalist, and I'm proud of it."
In his Monday rally remarks, Trump took a shot at globalists, asserting, "You know what I am? I'm a nationalist."
The crowd broke into a chant of "USA" in response, The Hill reported.
"It's a word that hasn't been used too much," he told reporters Tuesday. "People use it. But I'm very proud. I think it should be brought back. I'm somebody who wants to help other countries of the world. But I also have to take care of our country. We cannot continue to allow ourselves to be duped on military and also duped on trade. . . . So, in that sense I'm absolutely a nationalist. And I'm proud of it. Yes."
The term has been associated with far-right fringe groups like the white nationalists who helped organize protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. While the demonstrations were aimed against the removal of Confederate statues, those attending included neo-Nazis and other racist groups, some of whom yelled anti-Semitic and racist statements.
The protests eventually became violent, and a young woman was killed when a man drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters. Trump defended some of the Charlottesville protesters as "very fine people" at the time.
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