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Donald Trump will occasionally reference people with "good genes" as a way of praising those he likes. The president has said, for example, that Greg Pence has "good genes" because he's Mike Pence's brother. He thinks Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia has "good genes" because he's Antonin Scalia's son. And so on.
But at his latest campaign rally in Minnesota, Trump took this rhetoric in a different direction. In comments directed at his supporters in attendance, the Republican said:
“You have good genes, you know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes. Isn’t it, don’t you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota."
It's not exactly a secret that Trump routinely relies on overt racism, and this appears to be part of the same strain of thought. As a Daily Beast report added, "The 'racehorse theory' of genetics holds that some human beings are born genetically superior to others, and Trump has reportedly attributed his success to his genes."
Of course, in context, it's also worth emphasizing that the president was speaking to a crowd that was overwhelmingly white, in a state that's 84% white.
All of which leads to a couple of follow-up question. First, would Trump be equally quick to praise the "good genes" of people in an area with greater racial and ethnic diversity?
And second, if the president believes Minnesotans have "good genes," can he explain who he thinks has bad genes?