I was ‘misrepresented’, says Trump

Trump said on Twitter on Friday that he merely used “tough” language when discussing a new immigration bill with a group of US senators.

He was accused of having said “we don’t need more Haitians”, and saying of the African countries: “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”

Durbin said that he was in the process of describing the protections granted to immigrants from certain countries which have endured natural disasters or other devastation, including Haiti, where a 2010 quake killed hundreds of thousands of people.

“We want them to come in from everywhere”, the president said when asked about immigration policy during an Oval Office meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Durbin said after the Oval Office meeting that Trump’s words to the senators were “vile, hate-filled and clearly racial in their content”.

Black leaders were caught in a surreal moment at the White House on Friday as the storm over Trump’s remarks was breaking.

Macky Sall, president of Senegal, tweeted Friday he was “shocked” by Trump’s words, adding that “Africa and the black race deserve the respect and consideration of all”. Members of Congress from both parties are trying to strike a deal that Trump would support to extend that protection.

Ivana Trump, who was married to Donald Trump from 1977 to 1992, said the pair remain friends and she still talks to him on the phone, mostly about the kids and holidays. One participant at the meeting on Sunday denied that Trump used the term and another said he did not recall Trump making such comments. On Sunday, they backtracked and challenged other senators’ descriptions of the remarks.

Another Republican at the meeting, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, were mistaken in indicating earlier that that was the case. “And I’m telling you it’s a gross misrepresentation”, Mr Perdue said on ABC’s This Week. Trump in the interview on Wednesday declined to say what specific words he used.

As NPR and other outlets reported last week, it was Trump who rejected a tentative agreement reached by a small, bipartisan group of senators that would have allowed DACA recipients permanent residency in the USA and a path to citizenship.

“I was very proud of him”, Durbin said. Instead, according to a tweet from the Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey, the senators maybe heard Trump say “shithouse”. Trump also reportedly wondered why the USA didn’t have more immigrants from predominantly white and economically stable countries like Norway.

Durbin said Monday the White House should release whatever recording it might have of the meeting.

“Racism is wrong. Denigrating whole groups of people is wrong and we get to expect more from the president of the United States”, Maloney said.

At issue is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created by President Barack Obama to shield hundreds of thousands of these individuals, known as “Dreamers”, from deportation.

Haiti’s former prime minister did not hold back in his reaction either.”It shows a lack of respect and ignorance never seen before in the recent history of the U.S. by any President”, former Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe tweeted.

Trump addressed the issue briefly as he arrived for dinner at his private golf club with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California.

“I don’t believe the Democrats really want to see a deal on DACA”. “I think they talk about DACA, but they don’t want to help the DACA people”.