Don Lemon Tears Into Trump's 'Racism' After LeBron James Tweet, Calls on 'Truly Patriotic People' to Defend People of Color

"This president constantly denigrates people of color and women, too," Lemon said during his nine-minute monologue responding to Trump's Twitter attack from Friday.

"Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn't easy to do. I like Mike," Trump tweeted, sparking immediate outrage from Hollywood and beyond. Even Michael Jordan -- who the world assumed Trump was referencing -- praised LeBron for his character and charity work.

That was the silver lining for Lemon, who pointed out, "The overwhelmingly negative response though to his unfair and unkind attack on a good man, LeBron James, shows that American rejects what he is peddling. Most of America, anyway, not all of America."

And Lemon made it clear, he's seen sign after sign after sign that Trump is peddling blatant racism.

“I would like to note referring to African-Americans as dumb -- remember this is America -- referring to African-Americans as dumb is one of the oldest canards of America's racist past and present that black people are of inferior intelligence," Lemon said.

The CNN anchor noted he was responding to Trump's personal attack the week of the one-year anniversary of the deadly white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia. After the Nazi gathering resulted in one of the white supremacists driving his car through a crowd of counter protesters, killing Heather Heyer, the president said in a speech that there were "very fine people on both sides."

"Cross burnings are tiki torches; their white hoods replaced by no hoods and khaki pants. These are the 'very fine people' in the president's eyes," Lemon said. "And yes, let me not mince words here: This president traffics in racism and is fueled by bullying. From keeping children at the border in cages to bullying journalists at every one of his rallies and every chance he gets."

"President Trump is trying a divide and conquer strategy here, and here's how it goes," he continued. "He divides by race and tries to conquer decency by smearing and besmirching the truth and the people who fight to uphold it."

Lemon then asked his viewers to reflect: "I've wondered if he will succeed, if President Trump is the one who has the finger on the pulse of this country. Is he revealing who we really are? Think about that. Is this who we really are?"

The media personality concluded by encouraging "the decent and truly patriotic people who really love America and believe in its greatness" to stand up for the average citizens or immigrants being marginalized, "because clearly, Donald Trump won't."