Claims Judge Curiel’s “Mexican heritage” is an “absolute conflict of interest” in Trump University case

Building on his late-May San Diego rally, Trump spent early June 2016 insisting that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel could not be fair in the Trump University fraud lawsuits because of his “Mexican heritage” and Trump’s pledge to build a wall. In interviews and press coverage, he said Curiel had an “absolute conflict” and “inherent conflict of interest,” explicitly tying the judge’s ethnicity and supposed membership in a Latino lawyers’ group to alleged bias. Curiel was in fact born in Indiana and the bar association was nonpartisan. By arguing that a federal judge should be disqualified purely because of his background and Trump’s own racist campaign platform, he escalated his attacks on the judiciary and modeled a view of the legal system in which nonwhite officials are presumed suspect when they enforce accountability against him.

"I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest. This judge, of Mexican heritage, has an absolute conflict in my case." — Early June 2016 comments highlighted in Guardian and other coverage, where Trump explained that Judge Curiel’s “Mexican heritage” and Trump’s promise to build a wall created an “absolute” and “inherent” conflict in the Trump University fraud lawsuits