Trump racism storm over vile insult to immigrants
PRESIDENT Donald Trump has been accused of using “hatefilled, vile and racist” language in the Oval Office after he reportedly attacked immigrants coming to the US from “s***hole countries”.
The US President’s remarks, said to have been directed at African nations plus Haiti and El Salvador, were condemned by the United Nations human rights office and labelled “divisive” by members of his own Republican Party.
Haiti and Botswana summoned US ambassadors to explain the comments reportedly made at a White House meeting as part of an attempt by Republicans and Democrats to protect from deportation 700,000 people brought to the US illegally as children.
Mr Trump reportedly said: “Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here? Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out.”
The President was said to have suggested bringing in migrants from countries such as Norway, having met Erna Solberg, the Norwegian Prime Minister, on Wednesday.
Yesterday Mr Trump denied making the remarks, saying he had been “tough, but this was not the language used”.
He turned to Twitter to state: “Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said ‘take them out’. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings — unfortunately, no trust!”
But Dick Durbin, a Democrat senator who was at the meeting, said he had used the reported words: “In the course of his comments he said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist. I cannot believe that, in the history of the White House and that Oval Office, any President has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our President speak yesterday.”
The 55-nation African Union said it was “frankly alarmed”. Haiti, which yesterday observed the eighth anniversary of a devastating earthquake, summoned the US charge d’affaires for an explanation. Botswana called the comments “reprehensible and racist”. And South Africa’s ruling ANC said the words were “extremely offensive”.
Joe Biden, ex-US Vice-President, said: “It’s not how a President should speak. It’s not how a President should behave. Most of all, it’s not what a President should believe.”
Mr Trump later appeared at an event to honour Martin Luther King, the civil rights leader. In his speech he said: “No matter what the colour of our skin, or the place of our birth, we are all created equal.”
In the strongest reaction from a Republican, Representative Mia Love of Utah, a child of Haitian immigrants, demanded an apology and said the President’s remarks were “unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values”.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Panama resigned yesterday, saying that he no longer felt able to serve Donald Trump.
John Feeley (56), a career diplomat and former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, announced his resignation in a letter to the State Department. He is the first ambassador to resign over concerns about Trump’s leadership.
President Donald Trump gestures as he boards Air Force One yesterday