There wasn't any doubt that Trump and his base are racists. And finally, the press has acknowledged it. 

Only the people who refuse to accept reality fail to comprehend the visceral racism of Donald Trump. This is a man who demanded the death penalty for young African Americans who were clearly not guilty of the attack on the Central Park jogger a few decades back. He led the "Birther Lie" campaign against Obama, for reasons transparently racist, said a Mexican American judge, born in Indiana, couldn't fairly preside over a lawsuit involving him, and began his pursuit of the presidency by slandering the entire population of a neighboring republic. It's clear we have the most overtly racist president since Andrew Johnson, 1865-1869, who did all in his power to destroy the chances of 4,000,000 freedmen of ever achieving legal equality in this country. There are two primary reasons this fat, orange man is president. His Democratic opponent was pathologically hated by millions of Americans, and chose to vote for the least experienced, most ignorant, and most psychologically damaged candidate to ever run on a major party ticket rather than put her in the White House. And the second reason is equally chilling. Trump validated the deep racial resentment of millions of white Americans.

Trump's base remains a solid 35% or so. This base is not only overtly racist, but demands an authoritarian leader. We can pay lip service to our sanitized corporate culture and say that they are not aligned with "American values." But actually, there has always been a minority of citizens like this in the US since the Civil War. We have seen flare-ups in support of the KKK, the Third Reich, and the "Patriot Movement" (roughly 1978-2010). Trump has helped us re-identify and track them going forward. They are going to play a role in both local and national politics long after Trump is gone.