Trump Confirms Controversial Immigration Remarks About Foreign Nations

Trump Confirms Using “Shithole” Term in Immigration Discussion, Years After Denials

Former President Donald Trump has acknowledged using the term “shithole” to describe African nations during a 2018 White House immigration meeting, confirming an account he previously denied for nearly eight years.

The admission came during a campaign speech Tuesday night in Pennsylvania when Trump was discussing his plans for a “permanent pause on Third World migration.” After an audience member shouted “shithole,” Trump responded, “I didn’t say shithole, you did,” before proceeding to contradict his own statement.

“They came in, and they said this is totally off the record,” Trump recounted about the 2018 meeting with senators. “We wanted to be honest, because our country was going to hell, and we had a meeting and I say, ‘why is it we only take people from shithole countries,’ right? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden — just a few?”

The former president’s new account aligns with what Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois reported immediately after the January 11, 2018, Oval Office meeting on immigration reform and the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Durbin, who attended the bipartisan meeting, stated the day after that Trump had commented on immigration from Africa by asking, “Those shitholes send us the people that they don’t want.” According to Durbin, Trump repeated the sentiment multiple times and also said, “We don’t need more Haitians.”

At the time, Trump vehemently denied using such language. In social media posts on January 12, 2018, he acknowledged using “tough” language but insisted “this was not the language used” and claimed he “never said anything derogatory about Haitians.” He later told reporters that the remarks attributed to him “weren’t made” and accused Durbin of misrepresenting the conversation.

The 2018 meeting was attended by at least seven members of Congress and then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. While Durbin was explicit about what he heard, other attendees provided varying accounts. Nielsen claimed she did not hear “that specific phrase,” while Republican Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue initially said they did not recall those specific comments before later more forcefully denying Trump used that word.

The Washington Post reported that Cotton and Perdue told the White House they heard “shithouse” rather than “shithole,” which allowed them to technically deny Durbin’s specific claim. Senator Lindsey Graham, also present at the meeting, cryptically told reporters days later, “My memory hasn’t evolved. I know what was said and I know what I said,” appearing to criticize his Republican colleagues for their selective memories.

The meeting was focused on discussing a bipartisan plan to preserve DACA, which protects more than 500,000 U.S. residents who were brought to the United States illegally as children. Trump was attempting to phase out the program at the time.

In response to questions about Trump’s recent admission, White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson called the controversy “another Fake News narrative peddled by Democrats” and urged media to focus on “the substance of what President Trump correctly pointed out” regarding immigration policy.

However, Trump’s latest comments have effectively settled what was previously a dispute between different attendees with no definitive record of the private meeting. His admission confirms that his denials in 2018 were false and validates Senator Durbin’s contemporaneous account of the controversial remarks.

The incident highlights the ongoing contentious nature of immigration policy discussions and reflects Trump’s continued focus on restricting immigration as a centerpiece of his political platform heading into the 2024 presidential campaign.