Presently, there is an apologetic train of, I guess you can call it 'thought', which says nothing Drumpf is doing is racist because he's not racist in his heart.

It's a lovely bit of rhetorical squid ink. After all, you can never really know what's in a person's heart so no one can ever be called a bigot.
I mean, sure, you have to be a moron or a liar to espouse this but that's hardly an impediment for many conservatives these days.

{(I'm so old, I remember when 'conservative' meant green eyeshades fiscal probity and a kind of paternal serious mindedness. The good old days..sigh)}

Anyway, this has reached what I hope is peak stupid in the New Hampshire legislature. Rep (Merrimack 2) Werner Horn has kindly explained that just because people owned slaves didn't mean that they were racists. It was just good business.

'Poe's Law at work?', you ask. No. Deadly serious. I am not making this up.

And yes, if you Google him, he looks like a sex offender