Timeline: What Donald Trump Has Said About Mark Robinson

Former President Donald J. Trump was an early backer of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s campaign to become governor of North Carolina, a race that was jolted this week when CNN reported that Mr. Robinson had described himself as a “Black Nazi” in a post on a pornographic forum.

Mr. Trump now appears to be distancing himself from Mr. Robinson, who has denied making the posts. But Mr. Trump was previously a strong supporter of Mr. Robinson’s candidacy, holding a fund-raiser for him at his private club Mar-a-Lago, endorsing him, appearing with him at rallies, giving him a speaking role at the Republican National Convention in July and repeatedly comparing him favorably to Martin Luther King Jr.

Here’s what Mr. Trump has said about Mr. Robinson.

At the North Carolina Republican Party’s annual convention last year, Mr. Trump all but declared his support for Mr. Robinson, who had already drawn scrutiny for making a number of offensive comments in the past.

“I’m going to endorse Mark, but I’m not going to tell you about it tonight, OK?” Mr. Trump said in Greensboro, N.C. “We’ll save it for another time. But you can count on it, Mark.”

Mr. Trump said Mr. Robinson had become “one of the great stars of the party, one of the great stars in politics.”

The promise of an endorsement came nine months before Mr. Robinson beat out two rivals for the Republican nomination.