"You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger". By 1968 you can't say "nigger"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this", is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger". So, any way you look at it, race is coming on the backbone."
This is Lee Atwater, explaining the Republican "southern strategy", and its evolution over time. But the same happened on most everything else.
And then comes Trump, and straight up says that Mexican immigrants are rapists, and Muslims need to be banned. Which is exactly what most of his base were thinking - so hearing him say it out loud earned him that "honest man who says things as they are" reputation among them.
I'm sure you'll link soundbites from liberal leaning sites. But his supporters know what he meant, we don't take it literally that he thinks all Mexicans are racist. My wife and her Mexican family fully support him.
I also have an interesting perspective on die-hard Trump supporters. You see, despite being a liberal, I'm also pro-gun - and so I end up in many of the same political spaces side by side with them. So I get to hear a lot of unchecked, unfiltered in-group talk. It's actually far worse than a literal take on what he says, especially wrt Muslims. I've heard people say things like "I hate Muslims" and "we should strip them all of citizenship and deport them", with nodding all around. I've seen police officers describe the people they "serve as protect" as filthy subhuman animals - not some people, note, but literally the entire (majority Black) population of their precinct. And so on, and so forth.
I'm libertarian, economically conservative. Pro gun, pro abortion (within limits), pro legalizing drugs, pro borders, atheist.
I have lived all over the world, and racism/prejudice is in many forms. Blacks hating whites, whites hating blacks, asians hating whites, Mexicans hating blacks.
And that's just with race, it's even worse when it comes to political beliefs and religious beliefs. It's became okay to completely group people together and label an entire belief something based on the actions of a minor percentage of the group.
What you're doing is no better than those racists you've had the misfortune to deal with. There are plenty nice people down here that don't feel that way.