Trump has made sure to get even with Steve Bannon for what he supposedly said/thought. I'm sure all have now heard that Bannon has been dumped by Breitbart on Trumps challenge to either be with him or with Bannon - choose ONE! While I am NO Bannon lover [in fact think he is another sick puppy - if of a slightly different and more educated type than Trumpf himself], this 'get even' side of Trump is very dangerous - and to my mind really makes his talk of 'have a bigger red button on my desk' talk [like a child] about nuclear weapons potentially imperils the Planet. I think this episode [his reaction to Fire and Fury] only further supports its basic thesis - that he is not mentally, intellectually, or emotionally fit to hold the job - and is dangerous, capricious, devious and a long list of other negatives. While those negatives would fit a LOT of politicians and big businessmen of all stripes, even previous Presidents - there is something special about Trump and his 'crew' that is [to me] really frightening and dangerous. Watch this space.....never a dull moment in Trumpty-Dumpties adventures in White House Land. I'd also say that this move increases the chances that Trump will at some point try to fire Muller and make Nixon look like a little pike when it comes to Constitutional crises!
UN condemns Donald Trump's 'shithole countries' remark as racist
[FONT=&]Human rights office steps into row as residents of nations maligned by president respond angrily and demand apology
[/FONT]Trump suggested the US should bring more immigrants from Norway, not shithole countries'.
[FONT=&]Patrick Wintour, Jason Burke and Anna Livsey
[FONT=&]Fri 12 Jan 2018 18.07 GMTFirst published on Fri 12 Jan 2018 03.58 GMT[/FONT]
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[FONT=&]Donald Trump has been branded a shocking and shameful racist after it was credibly reported he had described African nations, as well as Haiti and El Salvador as "shitholes" and questioned why so many of their citizens had ever been permitted to enter America.
US diplomats around the world were summoned for formal reproach, amid global shock that such crude remarks could ever be made in a semi-public meeting by the president of America.
In a strongly-worded statement, the UN said it was impossible to describe his remarks as anything other than racist, while the Vatican decried Trump's words as "particularly harsh and offensive".
[FONT=&]
Shithole countries'? Words worthy of a racist-in-chief[/FONT]
Trump initially allowed reported accounts of his comments to go unchallenged, but went into damage limitation mode on Friday, insisting he had not used derogatory words but admitting that the language he had used at a meeting with Senators on immigration was "tough".
But the democratic senator Dick Durbin who was present at the meeting with Trump on Thursday insisted that the reports were entirely accurate.
He said "those hate-filled things and did so repeatedly".
"Shithole was the exact word used once not twice but repeatedly," Durbin said, adding that the word was specifically used in the context of African countries.
The UN human rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, told a Geneva news briefing: "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."
Trump's 'shithole countries' remark is racist, says UN - videoSalvador Sánchez, the president of El Salvador, said Trump's words had "struck at the dignity of Salvadorans".
"El Salvador formally protests and energetically rejects this kind of comment," Sánchez wrote on Twitter.
US diplomats and the US embassy in San Salvador sought to assure those in El Salvador of their respect for the country. Jean Manes, the US envoy to El Salvador, tweeted in Spanish: "I have had the privilege to travel around this beautiful country and meet thousands of Salvadorans. It is an honour to live and work here. We remain 100% committed."
Robin Diallo, the US chargé d'affaires to Haiti, was summoned to meet the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, to discuss the remarks. The former Haitian president Laurent Lamothe expressed his dismay, saying Trump had shown "a lack of respect and ignorance".
Across Africa there was diplomatic fury. Botswana's government called Trump's comment "reprehensible and racist" and said the US ambassador had been summoned to clarify whether the nation was regarded as a "shithole" country after years of cordial relations. Uganda's state minister for international relations, Henry Okello Oryem, called the remarks "unfortunate and regrettable".
The African Union said it was alarmed by Trump's language. "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice," its spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo told Associated Press.
"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."
Jessie Duarte, the deputy secretary general of South Africa's ruling ANC, said: "Ours is not a shithole country; neither is Haiti or any other country in distress. It's not as if the United States doesn't have problems. There is unemployment in the US, there are people who don't have healthcare services."
The leader of South Africa's main opposition party, Mmusi Maimane, described the comments as "abhorrent". She tweeted of Trump:Mmusi Maimane(@MmusiMaimane)The comments referred to here are abhorrent. He confirms a patronizing view of Africa and promotes a racist agenda. Africa/US relations will take strain from this, with a leader who has failed to reconcile humanity. The hatred of Obama's roots now extends to an entire continent
https://t.co/Kq09tVu0Bo
January 12, 2018
The US state department tried to pour water on the flames, issuing a tweet from its Bureau of African Affairs saying that "the United States will continue to robustly, enthusiastically and forcefully engage in #Africa, promoting this vital relationship".
Mexico's former president, Vicente Fox, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump, said in a colourful tweet that "America's greatness was built on diversity". [/FONT]He added Trump's mouth was "the foulest shithole in the world[FONT=&]. With what authority do you announce who is welcome in America and who is not? America's greatness is based on diversity, or have you forgotten your migration background, Donald?"
David Miliband, the president of the International Rescue Committee, saidTrump's comments were leading a "race to the bottom on refugees".
Trump has made few references to Africa since his election, and many senior Africa-focused posts in his administration remain unfilled.
In September, he appeared to invent a new country called Nambia while addressing African leaders in Washington. Trump also told them: "I have so many friends going to your countries, trying to get rich. It has a tremendous business potential."
The US government's Africa Media Hub made an effort to limit the diplomatic damage of the president's words.
Without directly referring to Trump's statement, a tweet said the "US remains committed to working together w/Africans to realize the promise of a more peaceful, more productive, more prosperous 21st century Africa. US deeply respects the people of #Africa & values its partnerships with them."
Boniface Mwangi, a well-known social activist in Kenya tweeted:Boniface Mwangi(@bonifacemwangi)Africa isn't a shithole. It's the most beautiful continent in the world. Beautiful,hardworking people. We have diamonds, gold, iron, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum, cocoa, coffee, tea etc. Sadly we have
#shithole leaders like Trump shitting on us everyday.
pic.twitter.com/Vv4Wgtq4Pk
January 12, 2018
Standing at a coffee stall outside an office block in Rosebank, a commercial and business neighbourhood in central Johannesburg, Blessing Dlamini, a 45-year-old administrative assistant, said Trump's words came as "no surprise".
"He has shown the world he is a racist. We should just block him from our thoughts," Dlamini said.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Trump denies 'shithole countries' remark but senator asserts he said it
[FONT=&]- Trump said he had used tough language' but denies using specific phrase
- Senator who attended meeting: Trump's remarks hateful, vile and racist'
[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=&]
Alan Yuhas in New York[URL="https://twitter.com/alanyuhas"]
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[/FONT]<font color="#333333"><span style="font-family: &amp">
[FONT=&]
[FONT=&]Fri 12 Jan 2018 16.53 GMTFirst published on Fri 12 Jan 2018 13.38 GMT[/FONT]
Donald Trump denied on Friday that he used the phrase "shithole countries" to describe Central American and African nations during talks with US lawmakers the day before. But one of the senators present contradicted Trump and called the remarks he had heard "hate-filled, vile and racist".
Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat who was in the meeting, contradicted him to local Chicago press on Friday morning. He said Trump "in the course of his comments said things which were hate-filled, vile and racist".
Durbin said: "He said these hate-filled things, and he said them repeatedly."
A few hours later, at an event to honor Martin Luther King Jr, Trump ignored questions from reporters, including one who asked: "Mr President, are you a racist?"
[FONT=&]Trump pans immigration proposal as bringing people from 'shithole countries'[/FONT]
On Thursday, Trump reportedly grew angry during a meeting about protections for immigrants from several countries, and asked: "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?"
"Why do we need more Haitians?" he reportedly added. "Take them out." He also reportedly suggested the US bring in more people from Norway.
Early on Friday, he denied using the derogatory language. "The language used by me at the Daca meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," he tweeted, using an acronym for a program to protect young undocumented immigrants. "What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made a big setback for Daca!"
Trump later added: "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said take them out.' Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust!"
But Durbin said: "I cannot believe that in the history of the White House and the Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday. I've seen the comments in the press and I've not read one of them that's inaccurate."
Leaders around the world spoke out in anger on Friday. Haiti summoned the American envoy to the country, El Salvador's president lodged a diplomatic protest, and the UN's spokesman on human rights told reporters "there is no other word one can use but racist."
[FONT=&]The invisible wall: how Trump is slowing immigration without laying a brick[/FONT]
The Republican senator Jeff Flake also contradicted the president, tweeting: "The words used by the President, as related to me directly following the meeting by those in attendance, were not tough,' they were abhorrent and repulsive."
The Thursday remarks was first reported by the Washington Post, citing aides briefed on the meeting, and White House spokesman Raj Shah did not deny that the president had used profanity to describe the nations.
"Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," Shah said Thursday. He added that the president wanted "merit-based immigration" of people who can "grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation".
The president harped on those themes Friday morning, saying that the proposals he saw Thursday were inadequate and even "a big step backwards". He claimed without specifics or evidence that the deal would force the US "to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly".
"I want a merit-based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs," he said.
That tweet and reported remarks echo Trump's long history of inflammatory comments about race, including years of spreading a false conspiracy about Barack Obama's birth, a campaign announcement calling Mexicans "rapists", and a refusal to condemn white supremacists last summer.
At the midday event to honor King, Trump decried racism. "No matter what the color of our skin or the place of our birth, we are all created equal," he said.
The president left the event without answering reporters' questions, mostly about his views of people from Central America and Africa.
[/FONT]
International condemnation of Donald Trump is growing, after reports the president used an expletive during a meeting about immigrants from Africa, Haiti and El Salvador. While meeting with lawmakers, Trump reportedly said, "Why do we want all these people from Africa here? They're shole countries … We should have more people from Norway." Trump also reportedly said, "Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out."
Earlier this morning, Trump wrote on twitter, quote, "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal madea big setback for DACA!"
Trump's remarks come weeks after The New York Times reported Trump had also disparaged Haitians and Nigerians during a closed-door meeting in June, saying Nigerians would never, quote, "go back to their huts" if they came to the U.S. As for Haitians, Trump said, quote, they "all have AIDS."
Trump's latest remarks come just after his administration announced it's ending temporary protected status for up to 250,000 Salvadorans who have been living in U.S. since at least 2001. Last year, the Trump administration announced it also is ending temporary protected status for tens of thousands of Haitians, Nicaraguans and Sudanese immigrants living in the U.S.
Trump's shole remarks Thursday have been condemned across the globe. That's shole. We're not using the actual expletive that he used, four letters before the word "hole." United Nations high commissioner for human rights [spokesperson] Rupert Colville decried Trump's remarks.RUPERT COLVILLE: These are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the United States. I'm sorry, but there's no other word one can use but "racist." You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as [bleep], whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome. … The positive comment on Norway makes the underlying sentiment very clear. And like the earlier comments made vilifying Mexicans and Muslims, the policy proposals targeting entire groups on grounds of nationality or religion, and the reluctance to clearly condemn the anti-Semitic and racist actions of the white supremacists in Charlottesville, all of these go against the universal values the world has been striving so hard to establish since World War II and the Holocaust.
AMY GOODMAN: In South Africa, Jessie Duarte of the African National Congress also criticized Trump.JESSIE DUARTE: Ours is not a [bleep] country. Neither is Haiti or any other country in distress. Obviously, we are in no position to stop any president from saying anything they wish to say. But all we can say is that developing countries do have difficulties. Those difficulties are not small matters. And it's not as if the United States doesn't have difficulties. There are millions of unemployed people in the U.S., millions of people who don't have healthcare services or access to education. And we would not deign to make comments as derogatory as that about any country that has any kind of social, economic or other difficulties.
AMY GOODMAN: And in Haiti, longtime activist René Civil said Trump should be reminded of Haiti's history.RENÉ CIVIL: [translated] In the name of the Haitian people, we are part of a patriotic emergency that is fighting for real change in Haiti. We demand that Donald Trump apologize before the entire continent, as well as before Haiti, the country whose blood has been used by ancestors who have served with their minds and bodies to liberate the United States itself from slavery. … Haiti is not a [bleep]. It's a great country. It's the mother of liberty.
AMY GOODMAN: Trump's remarks prompted his hometown paper, the New York Daily News, to publish on its cover an illustration featuring Trump's likeness superimposed over a cartoonish "poop" emoji, with the headline "S FOR BRAINS: Trump spews vicious slur against immigrants."
We go now to Florida, where we're joined by the acclaimed Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat. She is a novelist, speaking to us from Orlando, Florida, author of a number of books, including The Farming of Bones, which won an American Book Award. She was born in Haiti, came to the United States when she was 12. We are speaking today to Edwidge, and on this day after Trump's shole comments, on the eighth anniversary of the devastating Haitian earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people.
Edwidge Danticat, welcome to Democracy Now! Your response to President Trump?
EDWIDGE DANTICAT: Well, thank you, Amy. My response to President Trump is total condemnation. It was a very racist remark, which shed light on earlier decisions that he hadthat have been made by the administrationfor example, about temporary protected status being eliminated for Haitians and Salvadorans, and his remark, as reported by The New York Times, about all Haitians having AIDS. It seems like, once again, Haiti is being used as a foil, and he is baiting his bait and feeding themHaiti as red meat.
And it's extremely sad that it happened also in the shadow of this day. Today was going to be an extraordinarily sad day for many of us, anyway, who lost our family members, who lost our friends, in the devastating earthquake. So this is even more salt on our wounds. Not surprising, because of the nature of this presidency and the way this president conducts himself, but it is a terrible slight. It's completely racist, especially the way that he paralleled Haiti and Africa, which is a continent, not a countrysomeone should tell himand describing them in this manner and contrasting them to Norway.
AMY GOODMAN: Seems to be redefining the term "White House," where he lives, in Washington, and what he wants to see in this country. Edwidge Danticat, we have been playing the responses of people around the world, from South Africa, one of those, as Donald Trump calls them, shole, but he uses the full expletive, though, inexplicably, this morning he's kind of denying this in a tweet, though yesterday, when the White House was asked about this, they did not deny that he said this. I mean, there were so many congressmembers in the room. What does it mean for Haitian-American families, both the policy, what you're facing, the loss ofwhat so many communities are facing, Haitian communities and Salvadoran, the loss of TPS, but also for your kids, when people hear these terms?
EDWIDGE DANTICAT: Well, that's exactly where I was going to go. Now there are so many Haitian children who will be going to school today, and inevitably it will come up. And then they will have totheir parents, who are going to have to explain to the children why they don'tyou know, what the president has said and what kind of country they actually come from, and a country thatlike Haiti, that has had difficulties, but that also the U.S. has played a hand in creating certain types of situations that has led, you know, to the level of poverty that we have, which doesn't mean that we are not human beings, that we don't have dreams, that we're not trying very hard to keep our country going. So, it's very disparaging.
AMY GOODMAN: Edwidge Danticat, what would you say if you were meeting with President Trump today at the White House?
EDWIDGE DANTICAT: I don't think I would be meeting with President Trump, but I would use this opportunity that you have given me to tell him to just stop it. Stop it. I mean, he's spewing white supremacist views that have real consequences in the lives of ordinary people. We already see it online, people who are jumping in and saying, "Of course what he's saying is true." And then there are people who will act on it, when they meet people like us. They willwho will exercise certain prejudices that affect the lives of the people he is talking about. But that also can lead to actual violence against our bodies, against our children. So I think he needs to realize that what he's saying, from the biggest bully pulpit in the whole world, is affecting individual people. I don't know that he cares, because I think he's just spewing these things, and I think, in part, this was alsoyou know, this is what he believes.
But what he's saying, from this very high position of power, affects the future of nations, affects the lives of individuals, affects how peoplehow policy is created. And now you have all these white supremacists and racists who feel so empowered, because, basically, the president of the United States has put them onyou know, has put a target on the backs of these people who he has described in this way, for them to be ridiculed, for them to be geared to have prejudices exercised against them and, in some cases, to have violence and, you know, assaults possible on their bodies, because these words are verythese words give permission to certain kinds of people. And we become then hypervisible in our vulnerability, because we have been singled out, not onceonce in the policy with the TPS, once with the AIDS, and now with this, and as a group of people, as Haitians, and as people, he was saying, from Africa. And he's singling out people for and making us targets for all kinds of possible attacks. And
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, Edwidge, on this anniversary, this eighth anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, that killed up to 300,000 Haitians?
EDWIDGE DANTICAT: Yes. Well, todaythis is what we would have been doing today, would be remembering and thinking about our dead and commemorating these losses. But sadly, this has been muddled by this vicious attack by the president against our people at this time. So, it is important. We are still going to remember. We are still going to mourn. But to use a saying that many people of different backgrounds have been saying since the election of the president, "Today, we mourn. Tomorrow, we fight."
Yesterday's cover of the New York Daily News