The US President is reported to have made the comments in a meeting at the White House on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump is reported to have referred to Haiti, El Salavador and a number of countries as “shithole countries” in a meeting with lawmakers in the White House.
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” the president is reported to have said during a discussion about protection for immigrants from certain countries in a bipartisan immigration agreement.
Trump went one further and singled out immigrants from Haiti, in particular, asking during the meeting: “Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out.”
Trump instead inquired why the US couldn’t admit more immigrants from countries such as Norway, whose Prime Minister he met on Wednesday, and from Asian countries, who Trump believes might be of benefit to the economy in the United States.
In
a statement to The Washington Post, a White spokesperson didn’t directly address Trump’s comments, which haven’t been denied by White House officials, but instead defended the president’s immigration policy.
“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” the statement read.
“Like other nations that have merit-based immigration, President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation.”
Trump has adopted a hard-line stance on immigration ever since he took office last year and on Thursday, he reiterated plans to build a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico in order to, in his words, “protect the lives and safety of all Americans”.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/951675713089888256
The president also cancelled a scheduled trip to London next month where he had been expected to open a new embassy, saying that he was not a fan of the Obama Administration having sold the original site for the embassy for “peanuts” and referring to the new one, built at a reported cost of $1 billion, as a “bad deal”.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/951679619341737986?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
