During an unscheduled meeting with congressional lawmakers to discuss immigration reform on Thursday, President Donald Trump reportedly wondered aloud why the United States keeps taking in people from “shithole countries.”
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump asked, according to The Washington Post. The “shithole countries” he was referring to were apparently Haiti, El Salvador, and several African nations. Members of Congress at the meeting had suggested that the protections for immigrants from those countries, which the Trump admin has been stripping away, be reinstated. Trump instead wondered why the U.S. couldn’t instead take in more immigrants from countries like Norway.
White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah released a statement that at no point denies Trump made such comments.
“President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to society, grow our economy, and assimilate into our great nation,” the statement reads in part.
Statement from @rajshah45 on WaPo “shithole” story, via @JaxAlemany pic.twitter.com/fY6yDTCeRZ
— Stefan Becket (@becket) January 11, 2018
This is not the first time immigration discussions have reportedly brought out xenophobe and racist in Trump. Back in December, the president reportedly complained that some 15,000 Haitians who had come to the U.S. “all have AIDS” and worried that Nigerians who had been granted visas wouldn’t want to “go back to their huts.”
Trump’s latest comments come just one day after the White House released a list of quotes from journalists who praised POTUS’s decision to allow cameras to film a meeting on immigration reform held on Tuesday. Of course, part of that meeting ended up being held off camera anyway, at which point Trump was theoretically free to voice any number of abhorrent views.
