Trump: I’m the “least racist person there is”

Donald Trump’s Twitter war for the White House continued Saturday with an attack on Mitt Romney and perhaps one of the boldest declarations of his presidential campaign thus far.

In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Friday, Romney derided the presumptive Republican nominee’s “trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry, trickle-down misogyny,” calling Trump “extremely dangerous to the heart and character of America.”

Romney, who told CNN he has no plans to launch a third-party presidential run, is among the growing list of Republicans who have recently condemned the candidate’s attacks against U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Trump has accused Curiel, who was born in the United States, of unfairly adjudicating the civil lawsuits against Trump University because of his Mexican heritage.

“I think his comments time and again appeal to the racist tendency that exists in some people, and I think that’s very dangerous,” Romney said when Blitzer asked whether he thinks Trump is racist.

True to form, Trump shot back at the past presidential hopeful on Twitter Saturday morning.

“Mitt Romney had his chance to beat a failed president but he choked like a dog,” Trump tweeted. “Now he calls me racist-but I am least racist person there is.”

Whether or not Trump is truly racist, that last part is a particularly bold statement from someone who, in addition to his attacks on Curiel, has labeled Mexican immigrants in general as “criminals” and “rapists,” proposed an all-out ban on Muslims entering the United States, mocked Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s claims of Cherokee ancestry by calling her “Pocahontas,” and literally pointed to a supporter at one of his rallies and said, “Look at my African-American.”

Trump pointed to boxing promoter Don King “and so many other African Americans who know me well and endorsed me” as proof that he can’t possibly be racist.

However, just one day earlier, King had denied endorsing Trump.

“I’m endorsing the people,” King told the New York Daily News at Muhammad Ali’s funeral. “I’m not a Republican or a Democrat, I’m a Republicrat, and I go with the will of the people. The only reason Trump exists is because of the will of the people.”