How right-wing figures are defending Trump's indefensible 's***hole' remarks

During a meeting of bipartisan senators at the White House on Thursday, Donald Trump reportedly called Haiti, El Salvador and African nations “s***hole countries.” The comments were the latest in a long history of racist remarks by Trump.

In 2017, as president, he came under fire for saying there were "many fine people" on both sides of the Charlottesville protest which included white supremacists. But his campaign was accused of being rooted in racism from the start; calling Mexicans rapists, battling parents of a Muslim soldier killed during war, supporting violence against minority protesters at his rally and vehemently supporting a wall between the United States and Mexico.

Trump’s comments this week saw a plethora of pundits calling him a “racist.” Anderson Cooper said Trump’s comments weren’t “racial” or “racially charged,” they were racist. Jimmy Kimmel expressed his disbelief over Trump’s statements saying it was “unfathomable” it is that he’s running our country.

Republican Rep. Mia Love fired back at Trump’s comments as well saying, “The President’ comments are unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values. This behaviour is unacceptable from the leader of our nation. My parents came from one of those countries but proudly took an oath of allegiance to the United States and took on the responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with.” Former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton honoured the people of Haiti and called out Trump’s “ignorant, racist views.”

A lot of people were furious with Trump’s comments, but not everyone was outraged. Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren asked, “If they aren’t s***hole countries, why don’t their citizens stay there?”

The Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro said the problem with Trump’s remarks was that he used a curse word and that “he said it behind closed doors unlike Joe Biden, while Conservative pundit Ann Coulter said that “s***hole countries” should be given respect by being called “s***hole nations.”

Conservative host Tucker Carlson defended Trump’s “s***hole” statements saying, “Those places are dangerous, they're dirty, they're corrupt, and they're poor, and that's the main reason those immigrants are trying to come here.”

White supremacist leader David Duke called Trump’s comments the “perfect truth” saying he should “act on it.”

In response to the right-wing defences of Trump’s statement, people have slammed them on Twitter. Jesse McLaren rhetorically asked Lahren “Is South Dakota a s***hole because you came out of it?”

One Twitter user made a meme featuring Ann Coulter holding a sign saying “I’m a miserable person who peddles hate to make money off of dumb republicans.”

In the day following Trump’s explosive remarks, the United States ambassador to Panama has quit. He’s had reporters shout at him, “are you racist? and the UN has condemned his comments as racist.

Trump has denied using the word “s***ole” in the meeting, however Dick Durbin has claimed he used it “repeatedly.”