The short answer is nah, fam—regardless of what other headlines might tell you.
While in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday for its annual global economic forum, President Donald Trump gave a sort-of apology for retweeting a far-right British group’s videos supposedly showing Islamist violence.
In conversation with Piers Morgan (in what sounds like the pastiest, molted vanilla-wafer-iest meeting of the year thus far), Trump did not offer an apology for spreading the hateful—and false—videos.
“It was done because I am a big believer in fighting radical Islamic terror,” Trump said, referring to videos that actually show white-on-white crime.
So he’s sorry people have this crazy idea that he was endorsing racists and fascists. But the thing is—he’s not really sorry about that, either.
According to AFP, Morgan accused Trump of causing “huge anxiety and anger in my country, because Britain First”—the group Trump retweeted—“is basically a bunch of racists, fascists.”
Trump told Morgan, “Of course I didn’t know that,” because why would the 45th president of the United States bother to look up anything, much less the account he’s retweeting?
“I know nothing about them [Britain First], I know nothing about them today, other than I read a little bit,” Trump added.
Here comes the nonapology:
“If you’re telling me they’re horrible racist people, I would certainly apologize if you’d like me to do that,” Trump said.
Aaaaaaaaand let’s pause it right there.
Imagine you caught your best friend, your cousin, your girlfriend, Alicia who makes you the hot chocolate with real milk—someone you really love and trust and respect—hanging out on your couch with a Nazi. Like, an actual Nazi. And you’re confused and angry, because you like to keep things Nazi-free, and here they are, talking about this dope article about all the crimes Muslim migrants commit daily against poor, crippled, white Norwegians.
And you call them out on it—again, ’cause you generally like Nazi-free shit, and that doesn’t even sound like a real article anyway. And the best they have to offer you is, “Well, if you think Adolf is that bad, then I guess I’m sorry he was over.”
Are you accepting that as an “apology?” Yahoo!, which ran AFP’s story under the headline, “Trump Apologizes for Retweeting Far-Right British group,” apparently would.
And it wasn’t enough for Trump to offer his “sorry, not sorry” (that other media outlets will run as though it’s an actual statement of remorse) in the interview. Donald “Imma do it anyway, because that’s how I am” Trump couldn’t help seasoning his bull patty with a dash of lies and sprinkle of hyperbole:
“Certainly I wasn’t endorsing anybody. Perhaps it was a big story in the U.K., but in the United States it wasn’t a big story,” Trump said. “I am the least racist person that anybody is going to meet.”