North Carolina is slated to host one of the nation’s most competitive gubernatorial races, but ahead of the fall, there’s a contentious Super Tuesday Republican primary contest. It was against this backdrop that Donald Trump weighed in on the GOP fight, throwing his support behind Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.

That wouldn’t ordinarily be especially notable — Robinson is closely aligned with the former president’s MAGA crusade — but as NBC News reported, Trump announced his support in an especially provocative way.

“This is Martin Luther King on steroids,” Trump said of Robinson at a pre-Super Tuesday rally in North Carolina. “I told that to Mark. I said, I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two,” he continued as he offered Robinson his endorsement in the Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday.

No, really, that’s what he said.

For those unfamiliar with Robinson, and the degree to which the far-right extremist has nothing in common with Martin Luther King Jr., it’s genuinely difficult to know where to start.

Looking over the MaddowBlog archives, for example, we noted in 2021 that Robinson condemned the LGBTQ community as “filth.” About a year later, the North Carolinian boasted about having an AR-15, which he said he intended to use against his own country’s government if it “gets too big for its britches.” He added at the time, “‘Cause I’m gonna fill the backside of them britches with some lead.”

But that’s just a small sampling. Perusing Right Wing Watch’s archive, I found this striking report about Robinson also declaring that the United States is a “Christian nation” — and he invited those who disagree to leave the country.

Talking Points Memo also published a lengthy report on the North Carolinian’s rhetorical record, noting his social media content that included “extreme attacks on the LGBT community, immigrants, Jews, and Black people.” A related HuffPost report noted, “Robinson is also a regular proponent of conspiracies claiming the music industry is being run by Satan and the Illuminati. … [He also] warned on Facebook that the reality-TV shows ‘American Idol,’ ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and ‘Chopped’ are a sign of an impending New World Order.”

A Washington Post report added a couple of days ago, “There was the time [Robinson] called school shooting survivors ‘media prosti-tots’ for advocating for gun-control policies. The meme mocking a Harvey Weinstein accuser, and the other meme mocking actresses for wearing ‘whore dresses to protest sexual harassment.’ The prediction that rising acceptance of homosexuality would lead to pedophilia and ‘the END of civilization as we know it’; the talk of arresting transgender people for their bathroom choice; the use of antisemitic tropes; the Facebook posts calling Hillary Clinton a ‘heifer’ and Michelle Obama a man.”

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Honestly, I could keep going. This is a partial list. By any fair measure, Robinson is among the most hateful radicals to seek statewide office in the United States in recent memory.

Ahead of the 2022 election cycle, North Carolina had an open U.S. Senate seat, and incumbent Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper admitted that he seriously considered launching a campaign for the seat, which he believed he would’ve won.

But as regular readers may recall, Cooper ultimately rejected the idea — not because he was worried about his Republican opponent, but because he was worried about his Republican successor: If the governor was elected to the Senate, Robinson would become governor, and Cooper said he couldn’t in good conscience impose Robinson on North Carolinians.

Almost exactly three years later, the radical lieutenant governor is likely to become the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee — and is being compared to MLK by Trump.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.