Nearly eight years after a controversy that marked his first term, President Donald Trump publicly confirmed during a speech in Pennsylvania on Tuesday that he had indeed described certain African countries and Haiti as “shithole countries” during a closed meeting with senators in January 2018.
This acknowledgment contradicts his ambiguous statements at the time and reignites a debate that profoundly shocked the international community.
In January 2018, several American media outlets, including CNN and The Washington Post, reported that President Trump had asked why the United States “should accept immigrants from shithole countries.” The countries in question notably included Haiti and several African nations.
The White House had not directly denied the expression at the time, instead issuing vague statements. Trump himself had tweeted the day after the revelations: “The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used.”
But until Tuesday, he had never explicitly acknowledged using the term.
Unexpected Confirmation During an Economic Speech
While delivering an economic-focused speech in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, Trump departed from his prepared remarks to address immigration again. He stated that he had instituted “a permanent pause on Third World migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, and many other countries.”
Someone in the audience then shouted “shithole.” Trump replied jokingly: “I didn’t say ‘shithole countries,’ you said it.”
Then he went further—explicitly confirming his past remarks.
“Remember, I said this to the senators who had come, the Democrats. They wanted to be bipartisan. They came and said, ‘This is totally off the record, nothing said here will be reported, we want to be honest,’ because our country was going down. And during that meeting, I asked: Why are we only taking people from shithole countries, huh? Why can’t we get some people from Norway, from Sweden… just a few? From Denmark, could you send us some people? Send us good people, if you don’t mind. But we always get people from Somalia. Places that are a disaster, right? Dirty, filthy, devastated by crime.”
This description corresponds perfectly, according to CNN, to information published in 2018, when sources claimed Trump had railed against the arrival of immigrants from Haiti or African countries, while expressing his desire to see more Scandinavian immigrants. One of the reports cited by CNN indicated that Trump had asked: “Why do we want all these people from ‘shithole countries’?”
Republican Denials at the Time
At the time, two Republican senators present at the meeting—Tom Cotton (Arkansas) and David Perdue (Georgia)—had stated they did not recall Trump using such language. Perdue had even stated on television, “I’m telling you he did not use that word,” and called it a “gross misrepresentation” of the incident.
Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, also present, had stated: “It was a heated discussion. I don’t recall the use of that phrase; that’s all I can say.”
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, however, had immediately confirmed that Trump had used the term.
Trump had responded at the time on X (Twitter), accusing Durbin of mischaracterizing his remarks: “Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting.”
Durbin Vindicates His Version: “Yesterday, He Admitted What He Said”
Wednesday morning, from the Senate floor, Durbin indicated he wanted to enter the president’s acknowledgment into the official record:
“Because for six years, I have lived under the shadow of people claiming that I had misled the American people about what the president said. Yesterday, he admitted what he said.”
According to CNN, Durbin’s intervention marks a symbolic turning point: it closes an episode in which conflicting accounts sparked an intense political battle.
By the editorial team | Based on CNN reporting
