President Barack Obama acknowledged that poor white voters who support Donald Trump are worried about demographic changes in an interview that aired Sunday, but he said he is not worried because “that’s not the majority of America.”
Obama said in the interview that America has always had anti-immigrant sentiment based politics. “What I’m always reminding people is that although you’ll see bumps, whether it’s the Know-Nothings, or, you know, other anti-immigrant sentiment directed at the Irish or Southern Europeans as opposed to Northern Europeans or the Chinese, or today Latinos or Muslims, the long-term trend is people get absorbed, people get assimilated,” the president said in a CNN interview.
“I don’t expect that’s going to change because Mr. Trump’s got a little more attention than usual,” Obama added. “I think if you look at the current polls, he’s been able to appeal to a certain group of folks who feel left out or worried about the demographic change, social change, who have legitimate concerns around the economy and feeling left behind. But that’s not the majority of America.”
The president here is alluding to Trump’s strong support among white voters, particularly those without a college degree. America is currently going through vast demographic changes. Among newborns, whites are a minority. Recent estimates project whites will become a minority in the U.S. by 2044.
Obama said in the CNN interview that “the next generation of Americans” have rejected the positions Trump has taken.