Trump Is Racist, Says Head Of Group Of The World's Richest Countries

The secretary-general of a major global economic institution says Donald Trump is a racist.

Angel Gurría, head of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the former finance minister of Mexico, told Al Jazeera on Friday that "the word racist can be applied" to the presumptive Republican nominee.

In the interview, Gurría said he agreed with comments from former Mexican President Vicente Fox, who called Donald Trump a racist several months ago. Trump has claimed that some Mexican immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally are "rapists ," and has vowed to build a wall between the U.S. and its neighbor to the south.

Mexico is a hugely important trade partner with the United States. It is the 11th largest economy in the world based on purchasing power parity, according to the International Monetary Fund. It is also the second largest recipient of exports from the U.S., after Canada.

In describing Trump as a racist, Gurría joins a growing chorus of public figures and media outlets (including The Huffington Post ) who don't buy the excuses  Republicans have offered on Trump's behalf -- that is, when they're not calling his behavior "the textbook definition " of racism themselves.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence  and is a serial liar , rampant xenophobe , racist , misogynist  and birther  who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.