Updated

Obama-era Attorney General Eric Holder said over the weekend the “Make America Great Again” mindset is “rooted in fear,” and lashed out at President Trump by saying he’ll “never call him president.”

“This sort of thinking, this ‘Make America Great’ mindset is not only flawed, it’s rooted in fear,” Holder said, speaking to the Human Rights Campaign National Dinner on Saturday in Washington, D.C. “And it favors an imagined past over a realistic future,” Holder added, in remarks first reported by The Hill.

Holder questioned to what period of American history the “Make America Great Again” slogan was referring.

“Certainly it was not when people were enslaved. Certainly it was not when segregation was the law of the land,” he said. “Certainly it was not when women were disenfranchised. Certainly it was not when the LGBT community was routinely stigmatized.”

Holder served as U.S. attorney general under the Obama administration, from 2009 to 2015. He has said he is considering a 2020 presidential bid.

Holder called the upcoming midterm elections an “opportunity to send a message” to the “present occupant of the White House, Mr. Trump.”

“I’ll never call him the president,” Holder said, noting the message would be directed to “the extremists who surround [Trump] and to those that support him, that we will not allow for the dismantling of the social compact forced by Roosevelt and other great presidents between we the people and our government."

“Make no mistake," he added, "we are in the struggle of our lives.”

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for a response to Holder’s comments.