In 2016, Trump also employed a white supremacist playbook, stoking people's fears and biases in an effort to rally them behind his campaign. Trump began his campaign by referring to Mexican immigrants as rapists, drug dealers, and criminals. Among other blatantly racist and xenophobic moments along the campaign trail, Trump would go on to call for a ban on Muslims entering the US as he simultaneously depicted refugees as terrorists, which he continued to do as president.

Fast-forward to 2020, and Trump is rapidly leaning into a near-identical approach. 

During his Tulsa rally, Trump referred to COVID-19 as the "kung flu," which is part of the president's racist effort to blame the pandemic on China in order to distract from his own failings in responding to the virus. The president has ignored recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to avoid rhetoric that stigmatizes certain groups, often referring to COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus" or the "plague from China."

In January, February, and even as late as March, the president was actually praising the Chinese government over its handling of the virus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Trump's tone only shifted after cases began to spread at scale in the US, and it became increasingly clear that his administration had failed to adequately prepare for the outbreak. Polling has repeatedly shown that Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Trump's handling of the virus. 

As Trump has often done in the process of seeking to avoid responsibility, the president found a scapegoat and portrayed COVID-19 as a "foreign virus" that invaded the US from China.

Meanwhile, Asian-Americans have faced discrimination due in part to the Trump's racist accusations.