Image: Getty

When Donald Trump announced his plan to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, people had a lot of questions. Is he really this evil? (Yes.) Is this going to be the gaffe that does him in? (In your dreams.) What about Trump’s fabulously wealthy buddies—will they still be let in? (They’ll be just fine.)

During his extended interview with the candidate yesterday, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asked Trump about the specifics of the plan. From Mother Jones:

“I have actually—believe it or not, I have a lot of friends that are Muslim and they call me,” Trump said, when asked about his plan by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, the event’s moderator. “In most cases, they’re very rich Muslims, OK?”

Matthews then asked Trump if his rich Muslim friends would be able enter the country under Trump’s Muslim ban. “They’ll come in,” Trump said. “You’ll have exceptions.”

The Muslim ban is a horrible, racist thing. Plenty of people have gone as far as to call it un-American, having seemingly forgot about slavery, the Chinese exclusion act, internment camps, Jim Crow, and so on. But Trump is not an aberration, and neither is his plan. With this latest clarification, he’s embracing yet another one of our country’s most cherished principles: no matter the rule, always make an exception for the rich.