Members of the Ku Klux Klan arrive at a rally in Charlottesville, Va. on July 8, 2017. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP/Getty Images
NOT MY pres drumpf/trump is such a disgusting, neo-nazi, racist, fascist sexist pig bastard. The media won't describe him as such. but at least the LA Times is brave enough to call him out for being a liar.
Trump is a liar, but his 'shithole' remark shows he's often scariest when he says what he truly believes
In an off-the-cuff comment with legislators gathered in the Oval Office on Thursday to discuss immigration, President 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 here.
Trump’s comment was outrageous, immature, inhumane and vulgar — and it shames the nation. 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. Instead, he’ll bluster and bray about “fake news” and try to drag in the 2016 election results and the stock market, 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.”
The Washington Post first reported the president’s comments, based on information from people briefed on the meeting. The White House quickly issued a statement that didn’t deny the comments, but defended Trump’s efforts to “fight for the American people.” None of whom, apparently in the eyes of the White House, are people who trace their ancestry to Africa, Haiti or El Salvador, which was also part of the immigration policy discussion.
“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” spokesman Raj Shah told the Post. “… 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.”
So Trump’s dismissal of a large portion of the world is framed now as an argument for merit-based immigration?
That’s self-serving baloney. 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 color 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.
Ten months ago, the Los Angeles Times editorial board published a multipart series about President Trump calling him “Our Dishonest President.” We called him that because of a pattern of lies, misstatements and denials of reality that we argued were designed not just to deflect criticism, but to undermine the very idea of objective truth.
But sometimes Donald Trump is at his scariest when he’s saying what he truly believes.
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 we’ve suffered as a nation since Nov. 8, 2016.
From the moment he launched his candidacy by attacking Mexican immigrants as criminals, President Trump has returned time and again to language that is racially charged and, to many, insensitive and highly offensive.
Whether it is a calculated strategy to appeal to less tolerant and broad-minded supporters or simply a filter-free chief executive saying what’s on his mind, the cycle is by now familiar: The president speaks, critics respond with outrage, and Trump’s defenders accuse his critics of hysterically overreacting.
The latest instance came Thursday, during a White House meeting with congressional lawmakers on immigration. Trump asked why the United States would accept immigrants from “shithole countries” in Africa and the Caribbean, rather than people from places like Norway, according to two people briefed on the meeting.
A glimpse at some of the president’s earlier provocations:
JUNE 16, 2015
When Trump announced his campaign for president
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems.…They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.”
DEC. 7, 2015
At a South Carolina rally five days after the San Bernardino terrorist attack
Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”
FEB. 28, 2016
CNN interview
After disavowing the endorsement of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, Trump equivocated when he was asked in a nationally televised interview whether he would say flatly that he did not want the vote of Duke or other white supremacists.
“Well, just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, OK? I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So I don’t know.”
JUNE 3, 2016
Pointing to a black man surrounded by white Trump supporters at a campaign rally in Redding
“Look at my African American over here. Look at him.”
JUNE 5, 2016
In a CBS interview
Trump said the Mexican ancestry of a federal judge born in Indiana should disqualify him from presiding over a fraud lawsuit against Trump because of his proposed border wall.
After he called U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel “a member of a club or society very strongly pro-Mexican,” a reporter asked Trump whether he would also feel that a Muslim could not treat him fairly because of his proposed Muslim ban. “It’s possible, yes,” Trump said.
JULY 16, 2016
At a rally in Ohio
Trump defended his posting on Twitter of a six-pointed star, a pile of cash and an image of Hillary Clinton with the caption, “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!” Widespread denunciations of the tweet as anti-Semitic led an aide to delete it, but Trump said it should have stayed up.
“Just leave it up and say, no, that’s not a star of David, that’s just a star,” he said. It “could have been a sheriff’s star,” he said.
SEPT. 22, 2016
Presidential debate with Hillary Clinton
“Our inner cities, African Americans, Hispanics are living in hell because it’s so dangerous. You walk down the street, you get shot.”
JUNE 2017
At an Oval Office meeting, according to a New York Times report quoting unnamed officials. A White House spokeswoman denied the report.
Haitian immigrants “all have AIDS” and Nigerian immigrants will never “go back to their huts” in Africa.
AUG. 15, 2017
Days after a woman was killed and dozens injured in Charlottesville, Va., after torch-bearing Ku Klux Klansmen and other white supremacists waving Confederate flags and chanting “Jews will not replace us” confronted counter-protesters over the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue
“I think there is blame on both sides.…You also had people that were very fine people on both sides.…Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.”
AUG. 22, 2017
At a rally in Phoenix, referring to the removal of Confederate monuments
“They’re trying to take away our culture. They’re trying to take away our history. And our weak leaders, they do it overnight. These things have been there for 150 years, for a hundred years. You go back to a university and it's gone. Weak, weak people.”
SEPT. 22, 2017
At a political rally in Alabama, where he denounced black football players who have taken a knee during the national anthem to protest racial discrimination in the criminal justice system
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!’”
NOV. 27, 2017
Slur directed at Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has claimed Native American heritage, in his remarks honoring Navajo veterans for their service in World War II.
“You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.”
NOV. 29, 2017
Trump retweet
Trump drew condemnation from British Prime Minister Theresa May for sharing three anti-Muslim videos from a far-right British nationalist who was recently arrested for inciting hatred and violence against Muslims. The videos purported to show Muslims engaged in violent or anti-Christian acts. One of them, titled “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!” did not actually show a migrant beating the boy; the attacker was born and raised in the Netherlands.
mark.barabak@latimes.com | Twitter: @markzbarabak
michael.finnegan@latimes.com | Twitter: @finneganLAT
UPDATES:
Jan. 12, 2:25 p.m.: This article was updated with additional instances of President Trump’s racially charged language.
This article was originally published 6:30 p.m. Jan. 11.
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