Trump told a reporter he's 'not unhappy' in the fight about his racist comments

In comments to Daily Mail editor David Martosko, President Donald Trump indicated Wednesday that he is pleased with the way the fight over his racist attack on Democratic congresswomen of color is playing out.

Specifically, he said he's "not unhappy" with the effects of his Twitter tirade, telling the women — who are all American citizens — to "go back" to the countries they are from. It resulted in a House resolution condemning his comments as racist, joined by four Republicans and the recently independent Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan.

Trump often seems to think he's winning when he's whipping up racism and inflaming tensions in the country, though there's little evidence that it actually works to his benefit.

In his comments to the Daily Mail, Trump denounced the Democrats as playing the "race card"— which is usually a cover racists use when they're being racist. He said that "they played the race card on Nancy Pelosi," citing tensions that roiled the Democratic caucus last week before his own bigotry united the party against him.

But even that fight was, really, about him. It was sparked over disagreements about a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security and over the cruel conditions in which the Trump administration is keeping detained migrants. While some prominent progressive Democrats opposed any funding at all without major changes about the treatment of migrants in the administration, arguing that the concentration camps Trump is running are an abomination, Pelosi and many others in the party decided to move forward and pass a spending bill without extra protections.

Ultimately, though, that fight came down to disagreements about whether the Democratic leadership was doing enough to oppose and block Trump's racist policies and to what extent the party should be complicit.