Donald Trump’s long and relentless racist streak once again oozed into plain view over the weekend when he called on certain members of Congress (most of whom were born in the US) to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” He followed up his overtly racist screed by calling on those same members of Congress to apologize to him. Many mainstream headlines called out Trump’s racism, but only via third party quotes: The Democrats slammed the comments as a racist trope, or Nancy Pelosi denounced the comments as Xenophobic. The headlines don’t need this extra layer of qualification. What Trump said IS racism. The comments are INTENDED to be xenophobic. From Birtherism to last weekend, racism has been at the core of Trump’s character and his political strategy. It’s time to call it what it is.

+ Trump is defending his comments (surprise) and doubling and tripling down on them. The House will take up a resolution condemning the remarks (which, sadly, will probably be voted along party lines). Here’s the latest from CNN. (Reminder: You can’t be for Trump but against his racism.)

+ “Trump has not only always been a racist, but anyone around him who denies it, is lying. Donald Trump makes racist comments all the time. Once you know him, he speaks his mind about race very openly … White people are Americans to Trump; everyone else is from somewhere else. He simply denies the reality of how we all immigrated to the United States.” That from Jack O’Donnell, the former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. NYT: Trump Fans the Flames of a Racial Fire.

+ While the promised weekend nationwide immigration raids failed to materialize, the Trump administration is moving to eliminate nearly all asylum claims at U.S. southern border. More from Buzzfeed: Central Americans Who Travel Through Mexico To The US Will No Longer Qualify For Asylum.

+ The asylum law changes will have a hard time surviving court challenges. But that’s not the point. The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer nailed it in October: “The cruelty of the Trump administration’s policies, and the ritual rhetorical flaying of his targets before his supporters, are intimately connected.” The Cruelty Is the Point.