Donald Trump: ‘I’m a nationalist, OK? Nationalist. Use that word, use that word’

U.S. President Donald Trump is a nationalist — just so everyone’s clear.

He said as much at a rally in support of Sen. Ted Cruz at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, on Monday.

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“A globalist is a person that wants the globe to do well, frankly, not caring about our country so much,” Trump said.

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“And you know what? We can’t have that. They have a word, it sort of became old-fashioned, it’s called a nationalist, and I say really, we’re not supposed to use that word.

“You know what I am? I’m a nationalist, OK?

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "You know what I am? I'm a nationalist, OK?

“Nationalist. Use that word, use that word.”

The crowd responded by chanting, “U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!”

Trump’s remarks generated a flood of commentary on social media, with many apparently aghast — or even scared — that he declared himself a nationalist.

READ MORE: Donald Trump stumps for Ted Cruz, says he’s no longer ‘Lyin’ Ted’

Throughout his presidency, Trump has championed the interests of the United States over more global concerns, speaking critically of various free trade deals and talking of his intention to protect manufacturing jobs and build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico to control immigration.

Some on Twitter noted links between nationalism and fascism.

Trump’s brand of nationalism was criticized in January by Paul Miller, a national security professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Writing for Foreign Policy magazine, Miller picked apart Trump’s nationalism, focusing heavily on his claim that “the nation-state remains the best vehicle for elevating the human condition.”

Miller argued that the U.S. has “never come close to being a nation-state,” which is defined by UNESCO as being a place where the state “incorporates people of a single ethnic stock and cultural traditions.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: Miller argued that the U.S. has "never come close to being a nation-state," which is defined by UNESCO as being a place where the state "<a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/international-migration/glossary/nation-state/">incorporates people of a single ethnic stock and cultural traditions</a>."

Miller went on to say that Trump’s claim that people can only be fulfilled when they live in nation-states is “morally corrupt and, frankly, silly.”

He also noted that certain states are better at alleviating the lives of their people than others.

“The nationalist delusion is that we can unify our attachments under the umbrella of a single, overarching, holistic identity,” Miller wrote.