U.N., African countries blast Trump’s ‘racist’ words in angry global backlash

President Trump’s purported crude comments about immigrants provoked a global backlash Friday from the United Nations, African nations and other countries against his “racist” remarks. The torrent of criticism began within hours of reports that Trump, meeting with several lawmakers to discuss immigration Thursday, questioned why the United States would accept more immigrants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa rather than places like Norway. On Friday, Trump appeared to deny he had used those exact words. Sen. Dick Durbin, D.-Ill., who was in the room for the meeting, confirmed that the president had, in fact, employed the vulgar phrase several times. Officials and representatives of the target countries responded quickly and sharply. Rupert Colville, a human rights spokesman for the United Nations, said: “If confirmed these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the United States, I’m sorry but there is no other word for this but racist”.