Donald Trump suggested the US should stop accepting immigrants from “shithole countries” during a meeting at the White House yesterday.
In the latest example of his “penchant for racially tinged remarks denigrating immigrants”, says The New York Times, the US President “alarmed and mystified” Democrats and Republicans at a meeting to discuss a bipartisan immigration plan.
When he learnt that the proposals would provide legal protection to the children of undocumented migrants from Haiti and El Salvador and several countries in Africa, Trump became angry, according to the Washington Post.
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“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” he said, before suggesting that the US should be taking more immigrants from “countries such as Norway”. He reportedly demanded that Haiti should be removed from the list.
A White House spokesperson did not deny that Trump made the comments.
The remarks drew swift condemnation from Democratic and some Republican lawmakers, with reactions accusing the President of behaving unacceptably and of being racist.
“We always knew that President Trump doesn’t like people from certain countries or people of certain colours,” Democratic congressman Luis Gutiérrez said. “We can now we say with 100% confidence that the president is a racist.”
Trump said he had been “tough” on immigration in the meeting, but denied using the exact language attributed to him.
Nonetheless, residents of the countries allegedly dismissed as “shitholes” by the commander-in-chief took to Twitter to set the record straight:
While others, including South African newsreader Leanna Manas, took a more tongue-in-cheek approach:
Meanwhile, ex-deputy director of the CIA's counterterrorism unit Philip Mudd was applauded on social media for an impassioned plea for Americans to remember their own humble immigrant origins.
In a CNN clip widely shared on social media, Mudd describes himself as a “proud shitholer”, reminding viewers of the prejudice that faced earlier waves of immigrants, including his own Italian ancestors.
It is not the first time Trump has allegedly spoken in such a manner about Haiti and Africa.
During a White House meeting about immigration in June, he reportedly said residents of Haiti “all have Aids”, and that Nigerian people would never “go back to their huts” once they had seen the US.
