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The World Unites to Denounce Donald Trump’s Racist “S**thole” Comments

Trump’s remarks have already been greeted with horror throughout the international community.

Donald Trump listens during a news conference with Norwegian Prime Minster Erna Solberg in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, January 10, 2018. (Photo: Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump’s remark referring to El Salvador, Haiti and all of the countries in Africa as a “s**thole” is being met, unsurprisingly, with widespread backlash.

Trump’s remark, made during a Thursday meeting with lawmakers from both parties to discuss overhauling the US’s immigration system, blasted El Salvador, Haiti and the nations of Africa.

“Why are we having all these people from sh**hole countries come here?” Trump asked the lawmakers, then responding that America should instead have more immigrants from nations like Norway, whose prime minister he had met with on Wednesday.

He later added, “Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out.”

Trump’s remarks have already been greeted with horror throughout the international community.

“There is no other word one can use but racist. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘shitholes’, whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome,” Rupert Colville, the United Nations’ human rights spokesman, told reporters during a Geneva news briefing.

Botswana, an African nation, denounced Trump’s comment as “highly irresponsible, reprehensible and racist.” A spokeswoman for the African Union, Ebba Kalondo, stated: “given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice. This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity.”

“In the spirit of the people of Haiti we feel in the statements, if they were made, the president was either misinformed or miseducated about Haiti and its people,” Paul G. Altidor, Haiti’s ambassador to the United States, explained in a statement.

Only a handful of Republican congressmen have denounced Trump’s comment so far — and none of the leaders.

“The (President’s) comments are unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values. The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned,” Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, stated on Thursday. Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., offered a similar comment on Twitter.

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