Trump branded racist over reported ‘shithole’ comments on immigration

Racism allegations stacked up against Donald Trump at home and abroad on Saturday, after he apparently derided “shithole countries” during a meeting on immigration reform, prompting condemnation around the world.

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo said the reported language was “extremely unfortunate”, adding: “We are certainly not ‘a shithole country’.”

Namibia’s foreign ministry meanwhile said Trump’s language was “contrary to the norms of civility and human progress” and ignored Africans’ contributions in the US.

The 15-nation Caribbean Community meanwhile condemned Trump’s use of “repulsive” language”.

CARICOM “is deeply disturbed by reports about the use of derogatory and repulsive language by the President of the US in respect of our member state, Haiti, and other developing countries,” the bloc said in a statement.

The New York Times and the New Yorker magazine both directly called Trump a racist, saying the billionaire property developer-turned-politician had an openly “bigoted worldview.”

But in an editorial unlikely to help extinguish the latest firestorm in the White House, a US publication for white supremacists gave Trump its backing.

The Daily Stormer said the reported comments were “encouraging and refreshing, as it indicates Trump is more or less on the same page as us with regards to race and immigration”.

Trump tweeted a lukewarm denial early on Friday, maintaining that he used “tough words” but not those reported at the previous day’s White House meeting with Republican and Democratic party lawmakers.

He reportedly demanded to know why the US should accept immigrants from “shithole countries”, after lawmakers raised the issue of protections for immigrants from Africa, Haiti and El Salvador.