Trump embassy war of words:
DONALD TRUMP has been accused of using “hate-filled, 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 children 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.
He also suggested he would consider migrants from Asia who might help the US economically, according to remarks reported in the Washington Post.
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.”
Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, said Mr Trump’s comments were “shocking and shameful”. Speaking in Geneva, he said: “Sorry, but there is no other word one can use but ‘racist’. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘s---holes’ whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.”
The 55-nation African Union said it was “frankly alarmed”. Haiti summoned the US chargé d’affaires for an explanation. Botswana called the comments “reprehensible and racist”. South Africa’s ruling ANC said the words were “extremely offensive”. And the US ambassador to Panama, John Feeley, 56, resigned, saying he no longer felt able to serve Mr Trump.
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. We’re better than this.”
Mr Trump later appeared at a White House event to honour Martin Luther King. In his speech he said: “No matter what the colour of our skin, or the place of our birth, we are all created equal.”
Meanwhile, US television repeatedly showed poignant images of a proud young Haitian cadet with tears streaming down his face, graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point.
And Torbjørn Saetre, a Norwegian politician, tweeted last night: “On behalf of Norway: Thanks, but no thanks.”