Sure they can, but not when the comments are explicitly racially structured.
i.e. Norwegian immigrants are better than African immigrants. I'm sorry, if one doesn't detect the racial overtones of that comment, then one is a dumbass. For the record, I'm talking about Trump, not you--either he has no political sensitivity (not hard to believe), or he doesn't care (also not hard to believe, and equally as bad).
I can't be convinced that it's okay for him to make comments like this. The shit-for-brains needs to own up to the value of language, and the left will keep reminding him of that.