As 2018 got underway, Donald Trump hosted a White House meeting with a group of senators and referred to Haiti and African nations as “s—hole countries.” The Republican added that he’d like to see the United States welcome more people from countries such as Norway.
The rhetoric was hardly subtle: Trump wasn’t making the case against immigration, per se; he was instead making the case against welcoming Black people. If folks from overwhelmingly white Scandinavian countries want to relocate to American soil, the then-president was apparently comfortable with that.
Six months later, Trump traveled to Great Britain and lamented immigration to Europe. “I think it changed the fabric of Europe and, unless you act very quickly, it’s never going to be what it was, and I don’t mean that in a positive way,” he said, adding, “I think you are losing your culture. Look around.”
A Washington Post analysis noted at the time, “That argument — that immigration changes existing ‘culture’ for the worse — is a staple of white nationalist rhetoric in the United States.”
As Trump eyes a possible return to the White House, his perspective doesn’t appear to have changed at all. The New York Times reported:
Former President Donald J. Trump, speaking at a multimillion-dollar fund-raiser on Saturday night, lamented that people were not immigrating to the United States from “nice” countries “like Denmark.”
According to the Times’ account, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, the former president specifically referenced the 2018 controversy surrounding his “s—hole countries” comments.
“And when I said, you know, ‘Why can’t we allow people to come in from nice countries, I’m trying to be nice,’” the presumptive GOP nominee reportedly said at the fundraising dinner. “Nice countries, you know like Denmark, Switzerland? Do we have any people coming in from Denmark? How about Switzerland? How about Norway?”
Trump added, “And you know, they took that as a very terrible comment, but I felt it was fine.”
Let’s just go ahead and state the obvious: There was nothing subtle about the Republican’s use of the word “nice,” followed by his reference to countries with overwhelmingly white populations. Trump’s history of racism is not new, though it’s a record that continues to grow. I’m also reminded of an incident from eight years ago. Toward the end of the 2016 campaign, Trump, desperate to win Florida, traveled to Miami and spent some time at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, stressing the “common values” he shared with Haitian Americans. “Whether you vote for me or not,” the then-candidate said at the time, “I really want to be your biggest champion.” Call me cynical, but I’m starting to think the rhetoric he used at the time wasn’t entirely on the level. As for the ongoing presidential election season, polls suggest Trump is positioned to make gains among Black voters. It’s an open question as to whether or not routine evidence of racism will turn the tide in the opposite direction.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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