New Yorker: Trump and the White Nationalists

From Evan Osnos writing at the New Yorker:

Tuesday, in Dubuque, Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican Presidential nomination, took a break from his frequent warnings about the threat posed by criminals from Mexico to reflect on his experience with another part of the world. “Negotiating with Japan, negotiating with China, when these people walk into the room, they don’t say, ‘Oh, hello, how’s the weather, so beautiful outside, isn’t it lovely?’ ” Trump told the crowd. He adopted a broken-English accent. “They say, ‘We want deal.’ ”

Trump’s fear of Asians taking advantage of Americans, though not as well known as his suspicion of Mexican criminals, has a long history. In 1987, he ran an ad in three newspapers, calling for “a little backbone” in U.S. foreign policy. “For decades,” it said, “Japan and other nations have been taking advantage of the United States.… Let’s not let our great country be laughed at anymore.” An aide at the time, John R. O’Donnell, later wrote that the ad was “tailored to blue-collar resentments over the trade deficit and to rally Middle America against the machinations, real or supposed, of our foreign allies.” In 2012, Trump updated his view of Asians with a comment about his belief that climate change is a hoax. He tweeted, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

Read the rest of the story at the New Yorker.