Agreed. While not all of Trump’s hardcore supporters are overt white supremacists, racists make up a key constituency, and Trump has been exquisitely careful to play to them and their concerns.

His dancing around racist issues has never been accidental. His hardcore racist supporters hear him when he refuses to squarely condemn their views.

Many of Trump’s key lieutenants have had great sympathy for white nationalists, even expressing those sympathies from time to time to make sure they stayed on board the Trump wagon.

The hard truth is that without reactionary racists, Trump likely never would have been elected in the first place.

Clearly racism is not the only thing wrong with Trump’s legacy, but we neglect its key importance at our peril.

Trumpism isn’t going anywhere, after all. Those empowered white nationalists have tasted mainstream legitimacy, and it’s all but dead certain that whoever seeks Trump’s mantle in 2024 will court them.

And if that whoever turns out to be even marginally more competent than Trump, we’re all in for a world of hurt.