In 2015, McEnany was particularly critical of statements Trump made while announcing his campaign, in which he said Mexico was sending immigrants to the US who were “rapists” and bringing drugs and crime to the country. Trump added that “some, I assume, are good people.”

“To me, a racist statement is a racist statement. I don’t like what Donald Trump said,” she said in an exchange on CNN in late June 2015, in which she compared his remarks to comments about Jewish people made by the Rev. Al Sharpton in the 1990s.

McEnany added that Trump’s comments were “derogatory” and as “equally hateful” as Sharpton’s.

“Donald Trump has shown himself to be a showman, I don’t think he is a serious candidate,” she added. “I think it is a sideshow. It’s not within the mainstream of the candidates.”