Veteran White House reporter Sam Donaldson insisted on Sunday that President Donald Trump's supporters do not represent the diversity of the United States.

"His strong supporters -- I mean, lock her up, I mean, all the things he says, all the vicious, mean things he says, they love it," Donaldson told CNN host Brian Stelter. "They’re good Americans otherwise. They’ll probably give you the shirt off their back, they’ll help you if you need it, but they have this fixation."

"They want to return this country to the white Christian country that they believe it should be again," he continued. "They don’t want the diversity, and they follow him for this, but they’re not the country. We are a diverse people, we are good and strong because of that.

Donaldson added: "And we’re going to come back to that, I assure you."

"I like the optimism, Sam," Stelter replied.