President Donald Trump admitted on Tuesday to referring to some nations as “s–thole countries” during a meeting with U.S. senators, confirming a 2018 Washington Post story that the White House refused to comment on at the time.
Trump remarked to rallygoers during a Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, rally on Tuesday about how he blocked migration from “hellhole” countries following last month’s shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C. When an attendee yelled out “s–thole,” Trump laughed before reflecting on a prior meeting with senators about immigration.
“I said that to the senators — they came in, the Democrats, they wanted to be bipartisan, so they came in, and they said, ‘This is totally off the record, nothing mentioned here,’” Trump said. “‘We want to be honest,’ because our country was going to hell. And we had a meeting, and I said, ‘Why is it we only take people from s–thole countries,’ right? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden? Just a few — let us have a few from Denmark.”
Trump’s remark confirmed a Post story by reporter Josh Dawsey, who reported in January 2018 that he used the word with senators while asking why the U.S. accepted migrants from countries like Haiti and El Salvador. At the time, the story launched a wave of anger over the demeaning descriptor, and Trump denied using the word shortly after the story’s publication.
“The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used,” Trump tweeted in 2018.
“I think the president’s comments speak for themselves,” Dawsey told TheWrap in a text message. He also acknowledged Trump’s confirmation in an X post on Tuesday. “I said that to the senators…” Dawsey wrote.
The president also used this week’s speech to disparage Somalia, a frequent line of attack for him recently, as a nation that was “filthy, dirty, disgusting [and] ridden with crime.” Trump blasted the U.S.’ acceptance of Somalians last month in a Truth Social post attacking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
