Keypoints:
- Trump repeats slur at new rally
- Critics cite racism, allies defend
- Deportation and bans intensify
PRESIDENT Donald Trump used a campaign-style rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday to repeat the crude epithet that caused global uproar during his first term, openly referring again to ‘shithole countries’ while attacking immigration. The event, initially framed as an economic policy address, quickly veered into harsh rhetoric aimed at migrants and certain African nations, AFP reported.
Trump, now 79 and back in the White House, told supporters he once asked aides: ‘Why is it we only take people from shithole countries? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden?’ He reserved particular disdain for Somalia, calling it ‘a disaster’ and ‘ridden with crime’, and recently labelled Somali immigrants ‘trash’.
Critics denounce language as racist
Democrats swiftly condemned the remarks. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts wrote on X that Trump’s comments offered ‘more proof of his racist, anti-immigrant agenda’. The renewed controversy mirrors the uproar of 2018, when the original reports of the slur triggered diplomatic protests from African capitals.
Republicans, however, are divided. Florida lawmaker Randy Fine defended the president on CNN, saying ‘not all cultures are equal and not all countries are equal’, and argued that Trump ‘speaks in language that Americans understand’.
Scholars warn of mainstreamed extremism
Carl Bon Tempo, a history professor at the University of Albany, told AFP the rhetoric mirrors long-standing far-right themes. ‘The difference is now it’s coming directly out of the White House,’ he said, noting that the president holds ‘the biggest megaphone’ in US politics. Trump’s 2023 comment that immigrants were ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ had already drawn comparisons to Adolf Hitler.
Terri Givens of the University of British Columbia said Trump has shed any restraint. ‘Any filter he might have had is gone,’ she told AFP. Mark Brockway of Syracuse University added that immigrants — regardless of how long they have lived in the United States — were becoming targets in Trump’s battle against an ‘invented evil enemy’.
Hardline policies widen under new administration
Trump’s return to office has brought sweeping immigration changes. His administration has suspended immigration applications from nationals of 19 of the world’s poorest countries and launched what critics call a harsh deportation campaign. At the same time, he has ordered the admission of white South African farmers, citing their alleged persecution as justification.
Senior officials are also adopting inflammatory language. Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security Secretary, recently described some immigrants as ‘killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies’, rhetoric analysts say helps redirect public frustration over rising living costs, job insecurity, and shrinking federal benefits.
‘Reverse migration’ rhetoric gains traction
After an Afghan national attacked two National Guard soldiers in Washington on November 28, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to call for ‘REVERSE MIGRATION’. The concept, rooted in the work of European far-right theorists such as French writer Renaud Camus, advocates expelling foreigners considered incapable of assimilation.
Experts say these arguments echo the nativist politics of the 1920s, when immigration laws favoured Northern and Western Europeans. White House adviser Stephen Miller recently wrote on X: ‘You are not just importing individuals. You are importing societies… At scale, migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions of their broken homelands.’
