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Trump says he 'believes in race horse theory'

scienceJul 14, 202631736

During remarks about Senator Lindsey Graham today, Donald Trump said, "I'm a believer in the race horse theory," adding, "If you have problems, you have problems. And he had some problems," after noting Graham's father died around the same age. Posts included with the coverage interpret that phrase as invoking inherited traits and explicitly link it to eugenics and Nazi racial ideas. CNN reporting on Trump's long‑standing public statements on heredity and health documents a separate but related "battery" theory Trump has described, in which people are born with a finite amount of energy and exercise only depletes it; CNN cites past profiles and White House doctors who have commented that Trump credits "incredible genes" for his health. Earlier White House physicians publicly pronounced Trump in good health and urged more exercise, and reporting cited in CNN traces the "battery" idea to profiles in the New Yorker and Trump Revealed. The remark and the posts comparing it to eugenics prompted immediate online discussion linking the phrase to beliefs about genetic inheritance.

Aaron Rupar
@atrupar.com

Trump on Lindsey Graham: "His father died just about at the same age. I'm a believer in the race horse theory. If you have problems, you have problems. And he had some problems."

5305h ago
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