Robin Wright at the New Yorker on Trump’s “tough” words about African countries:

President Trump’s credibility as a world leader has been, to borrow his vulgarity, shot to shit. With one word—just the latest in a string of slurs about other nations and peoples—he has demolished his ability to be taken seriously on the global stage. “There is no other word one can use but ‘racist,’ ” the spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, Rupert Colville, said at a briefing in Geneva. “You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘shitholes,’ whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.”

That’s what the US stands for at this moment – hateful racist contempt said aloud … Read the rest

The African Union is displeased with Donald “shithole” Trump.

The organisation representing African countries has demanded that US President Donald Trump apologise after he reportedly called nations on the continent “shitholes”.

The African Union mission in Washington DC expressed its “shock, dismay and outrage” and said the Trump administration misunderstood Africans.

But, the Beeb continues, he denies it. Of course he does, the Beeb does not reply to itself, but he lies almost as often as he speaks, and he doesn’t hesitate to deny things we’ve all seen and heard. His denial is, epistemically speaking, pretty much worthless.

On Friday, Mr Trump on Friday tweeted that his language he used at the private meeting with lawmakers to discuss immigration legislation

Trump of course is lying about it.

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 made – a big setback for DACA!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018

I suppose he’s too thick to realize that all his many lies have the result that informed people won’t believe this one.

Anyway, there are witnesses.

Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said on Friday that the president did use the term “shithole,” repeatedly, during the course of the meeting on immigration — which Mr. Durbin attended. The senator described Mr. Trump as saying “things which were hate-filled, vile and

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/951579003592245250

shitholes of the world, unite and take over

— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) January 11, 2018

https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/951580800180543488

To the Nazi's, the purest Aryans were the Nordic people of Germany and Norway. “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries [Haiti and Africa] come here?” Trump exploded today, saying the U.S. should bring more people from countries like Norway. Connection?

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) January 11, 2018

I condemn this unforgivable statement and this demeaning of the office of the Presidency. I will always fight for the vulnerable among us and against bigotry in all its forms. https://t.co/uffsZkgnfy

— Elijah E. Cummings (@RepCummings) January 11, 2018

.@realDonaldTrump, your mouth is the foulest shithole in the world. With

But wait, it gets even worse. Chris Cillizza has new details.

On Thursday, in a meeting with a senators and House members on immigration, the President of the United States, asked this: “Why do we want all these people from ‘shithole countries’ coming here?”

Yes, he said “shithole countries” — apparently in reference to the fact that immigrants from places like El Salvador, Haiti and Africa were being protected in a potential bipartisan deal to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and secure funding for border security.

What’s even more appalling is that the White House didn’t even try to deny that Trump used that slur, which was first reported in The Washington Post. In fact,

Let’s get the take from somewhere else first. The BBC:

US President Donald Trump has reportedly lashed out at immigrants in a four-letter Oval Office outburst.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Mr Trump told lawmakers on Thursday, according to the Washington Post.

The remark was reportedly in reference to people from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries.

The White House did not deny the comment, which has been confirmed by other US media.

Wow.

We know that’s what he thinks, of course, but we didn’t all know he was quite that disinhibited.

Democratic Senator Richard Durbin had just been discussing US temporary residency permits granted to citizens of countries hit by