The Diplomatic Backlash to Trump's Racist "Shithole" Comments Continues

By Morgan Baskin  |  January 15, 2018 | 4:00pm
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South Africa’s foreign ministry said that it will issue “a diplomatic protest” to the United States at its embassy in Pretoria after President Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and the entire continent of Africa as “shithole countries” that send incompetent workers to the U.S. South Africa joins the African Union, the United Nations Office of Human Rights, hundreds of ambassadors, and a tiny handful of Republican lawmakers in condemning Trump for the statement.

“The Department will provide an opportunity [to] explain the statement that African countries, alongside Haiti and El Salvador, constitute ‘shitholes’ from where migrants into the United States are undesirable,” the ministry’s press release said, per a partial transcript published Monday by CNN, and added that Trump’s denial of his comments “was not categorical, referring only to Haiti and not addressing the entirety of the statement attributed to him.”

The governments of Haiti, Senegal, and Botswana have reportedly summoned the U.S. ambassadors stationed there, the CNN report continued, the latter of which released a statement last week noting that “the Botswana government has also inquired from the U.S. government through the ambassador to clarify if Botswana is regarded as a ‘shithole’ country.”

News broke last week that U.S. Ambassador to Panama John Feeley resigned from his post, though Feeley has said he made his decision to resign weeks before Trump’s comments were made public.

 
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