One of Trump's favorite journalists admits that the president 'seems to think his base is racist'

Conservative journalist Salena Zito, whose account of the 2016 presidential election has been enthusiastically endorsed by President Donald Trump, had some harsh words for him after the GOP's 2018 midterm defeat.

In her recap of why Republicans lost their House majority in 2018, Zito said that even many conservative suburban men felt turned off by Trump's red-meat rhetoric on undocumented immigrants.

"Insisting on border security is good," she said. "The scorched-earth rhetoric isn’t."

She then went on to explain that Trump's campaign against immigrants in the final stretch of the 2018 midterm race -- which included a demagogic ad portraying Central American migrants as potential psychotic killers -- made her think that Trump himself must believe his voters are a bunch of racists.

"Because voters don’t hold the racial resentments and fears Trump seems to think they do," she wrote. "From the way he talks, Trump seems to think his base is racist. Forget the fact that the media thinks they are, Trump campaigns as if they are."

Zito then suggested that Trump pursue some kind of deal that gives DREAMers -- undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States when they were children -- a pathway to citizenship in exchange for funding for his border wall.

Read the whole analysis here.