What Trump believes
In an off-the-cuff comment with legislators gathered in the Oval Office on Thursday to discuss immigration, U.S. President Donald Trump laid bare his world vision. There are wealthy white countries such as Norway, which are welcome to send immigrants to the United States. Then there are what the president called “shithole countries” — Haiti and all the nations of Africa — whose people (overwhelmingly black and brown) the president doesn’t think belong in the U.S.
Trump’s comment was outrageous, immature, inhumane and vulgar — and it shames the United States. It’s shocking that an American president would think so reductively and heartlessly about so much of the world. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the president himself will feel shame, and in the end, he is unlikely to be punished by his base for what he said.
But his comments stand for themselves. “What do we want Haitians here for?” the president reportedly asked. “Why do we want all these people from Africa here? Why do we want all these people from shithole countries?” Then he added: “We should have people from places like Norway.”
It’s hard to interpret Trump’s statement — comparing Haiti and Africa with Norway, in effect — as anything other than an attack on people of colour around the world. But even those who don’t interpret it that way should be appalled that the president would express such disdain and disgust for countries where poverty is rampant, where people struggle because they lack the economic advantages of Americans, where wars are not infrequent.
Trump’s dwindling ranks of supporters say they like him because he calls things as he sees them. He’s not polished — he’s the antithesis of the smooth-talking pol, the Washington insider, the denizen of the D.C. swamp. Fine. But now he has offered us another glimpse into what the unfettered Trump sees. The ugliness here isn’t in the view, but in the viewer. Add these comments to the long list of embarrassments the United States has suffered as a nation since Nov. 8, 2016.