It only really works as a racist statement, when you believe in Western Exceptionalism.

This Is some laughable mental gymnastics! I assure you that I don't believe in Western exceptionalism.

The reason looking at Trump's ugly, ego-stroking, interior design choices and saying they "look like a middle eastern dictator designed it" is racist, is because it Orientalizes the middle east, not as a place with diverse peoples, politics, and yes, interior design senses.

But instead papers over that diversity and paints Trump's gaudy displays as unbecoming of a western leader, more akin to that of an imagined barbaric Oriental Despotism

Saying Trump's design sense is "Like a middle eastern dictator" is very different from saying it's "like a European king". The former sits within a of a long history of Oriental racism perpetuated by Europeans, against people's the Global South.

Please read Orientalism by Edward Said, I'm begging you people!

Wanna explain that one, Sherlock?