President Donald Trump speaks at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday finally admitted using the phrase “shithole countries” to describe Haiti and African nations in a sign that the president seems to feel emboldened in his second term.
At a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump launched into a grievance-filled rant in a speech that was supposed to be about the economy, and went on a now-typical anti-immigration tirade.
The president bragged about his crackdown on people entering the US “from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, and many other countries.”
He then recalled an infamous private meeting with lawmakers in 2018.
“We had a meeting, and I said, ‘Why is it we only take people from shithole countries?’ Right? ‘Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden?’” Trump told his base.
“But we always take people from Somalia,” he continued. “Places that are a disaster. Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”
His comments build on his recent rhetoric in which he’s targeted Somali immigrants in the US in particular.
But perhaps what is significant is how Trump previously denied using the phrase “shithole countries” to describe Haiti and some African nations in a closed-door meeting about seven years ago.
Trump wrote on social media as the furor grew around his comments: “This was not the language used.”
At the Pennsylvania event, Trump also targeted Representative Ilhan Omar (Democrat, Minnesota), who came to the US as a refugee from Somalia and became an American citizen in 2000.
He alleged without evidence that the congresswoman was illegally in the country, and argued, “we oughta get her the hell out.”
Bizarrely, Trump then mused about what it would be like if he had married his sister.
“She married her brother in order to get in, right? She married her brother. Can you imagine if Donald Trump married his sister? Beautiful,” he said.
Omar has called Trump’s repeated claim that she married her brother “absolutely false and ridiculous.”
Following his remarks on Tuesday, she called out Trump for “resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies.”
She added, “He continues to be a national embarrassment.”
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1998567984340828249?s=2
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