Charles Barkley Blasts Trump: 'He's Made It Popular to Be Racist'

Charles Barkley appeared on the Chris Cuomo Project earlier this week and directly criticized Donald Trump for anti-Semitic tendencies that he says have made racism more acceptable across the United States.

"He's made it popular to be racist. Like, there's no consequences for being racist now," Barkley said.

The NBA legend added that many people are "wearing it with a badge of courage" and that Trump "never denounces it." Barkley stated flatly that Trump has made racism "more acceptable" in the country.

The exact date of the interview is not specified in the source.

FROM CORDIAL TO BITTER

Barkley said that before Trump entered politics, their encounters were pleasant. "I had always met Trump. We just happened to be in the same places in New York and he was always cool and cordial… and he would always ask me about basketball," Barkley recalled on the Chris Cuomo Project. Trump even told him, "Oh, me and Melania watch the show all the time."

Barkley said that was roughly 10 years before Trump became president, though that time frame comes from Barkley's own recollection and has not been independently verified. Still, it shaped his early outlook. "I was like, 'okay, maybe he's going to run the country like a business and it might be successful. Let's give him a chance,'" Barkley said.

That chance, in Barkley's telling, went nowhere. "And then he didn't," Barkley said, describing Trump as becoming "this bitter guy." After Trump lost his bid for a second term, Barkley said he hoped for something better. "I was like, okay, maybe because he lost, and okay, maybe he'll try to do some good stuff. Instead, it seemed like to me he became more bitter and angry."

The shift, Barkley suggested, was personal as much as political. The man who once asked about basketball and chatted about his favorite TV show had, in Barkley's view, hardened into something else entirely.

A PRESIDENT'S PRIORITIES