By: Ricardo Abud
US President Donald Trump reignited one of the most serious controversies of his political career by repeating a deeply offensive and derogatory phrase about poor countries and their inhabitants. During a rally in Pennsylvania in December 2025, Trump addressed his supporters with words that not only disparaged entire countries but also reinforced an ideology of cultural and racial supremacy.
In his speech, Trump directly recalled an episode from almost eight years ago when, in a meeting with legislators, he asked: The president was then even more explicit in describing migrants from nations like Somalia with terms like “filthy, disgusting, revolting and crime-ridden ,” words that not only dehumanize millions of people, but also appeal to racial and xenophobic stereotypes.
The use of the term "shithole countries" was not simply a diplomatic slip-up. It was a deliberate characterization that dehumanizes millions of people based on their national origin. When a world leader reduces entire nations, and by extension their inhabitants, to derogatory terms, while simultaneously praising predominantly white countries like Norway, the underlying message is unmistakable: some people are more valuable than others based on their race and background.
This rhetoric does not occur in a vacuum. It fits within a broader pattern of comments that have characterized Trump's political career, from calling Mexican immigrants "rapists" to proposing a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
What is particularly ironic about these comments is that they completely ignore the history of the United States as a nation of immigrants. The country was built, quite literally, on the forced labor of enslaved Africans and the contributions of successive waves of migrants fleeing poverty, persecution, and a lack of opportunity in their home countries.
Immigrants from the nations Trump despised have been fundamental to American development. Let's consider some examples:
Haitian immigrants have enriched fields such as medicine, education, and business. After the 2010 earthquake, many Haitian professionals who came to the United States became essential contributors to their communities.
African immigrants represent one of the most educated groups in the United States, with higher education rates exceeding the national average. They have founded companies, worked as healthcare professionals during pandemics, and contributed significantly to technological innovation.
Latin American immigrants from Central American countries work in essential sectors: agriculture, construction, healthcare, and hospitality. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many were considered "essential workers ," risking their lives to keep the country's infrastructure running.
The preference expressed for Norwegian immigrants reveals another fallacy: the notion that there is a "right" kind of immigrant. Historically, every wave of migration has faced discrimination. The Irish of the 19th century were considered undesirable, as were Italians, Eastern European Jews, and virtually every group that was not Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
Furthermore, modern Norwegians have little reason to emigrate en masse to the United States. Norway offers its citizens free university education, universal healthcare, high salaries, and one of the best qualities of life in the world. The question isn't why the United States doesn't receive more Norwegians, but why anyone would leave Norway for a country without these social guarantees.
Trump's comments cannot be separated from the context of white supremacy that has permeated certain sectors of American politics. The idea that people from predominantly white countries are preferable to those from predominantly Black or mixed-race nations is racism in its most blatant form.
Individual merit is not determined by country of origin.
The desperation that drives migration often reflects centuries of colonial and economic exploitation by Western powers.
Diversity has historically been a strength, not a weakness, for the United States.
When a president uses this language, he legitimizes racism in society. Hate crimes against immigrants and minorities increased during Trump's presidency. Dehumanizing rhetoric creates an environment where violence and discrimination become normalized.
Trump's rhetoric doesn't stop at isolated insults. His political approach to immigration has been consistent with these ideas: he advocates for policies that restrict the entry of migrants from non-European regions while favoring, at least rhetorically, immigrants from predominantly white and wealthy countries. This fuels a narrative that some groups of people are "worth more" than others based on their geographic or racial origin.
Analysts and critics have pointed out that this line of discourse represents a clearly racist and anti-immigrant agenda that goes beyond traditional migration management, embracing a vision of cultural and ethnic hierarchies.
To forget that the United States itself is a country built by immigrants—many of them from the very regions Trump denigrates—is to ignore the nation's fundamental history. Haitian, African, and other immigrants have contributed, and continue to contribute, to the social, cultural, and economic development of the United States.
Reducing people to derogatory labels under an exclusionary discourse is not only morally reprehensible, but it contradicts the foundational values of diversity and opportunity that define American identity.
Furthermore, these comments damage the United States' standing on the world stage. Millions of people in Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America—including highly skilled professionals, bright students, and aspiring entrepreneurs—hear these messages and question whether the United States is truly a place that will value them.
The comments about "shithole countries" were not an accident or a misinterpreted exaggeration. They were a clear expression of an ideology that values people based on their race and national origin. This view fundamentally contradicts the values that the United States claims to represent: equality, opportunity, and human dignity.
The greatness of the United States has never lay in accepting only those who already have privileges, but in offering opportunities to those who desperately seek them. Immigrants from so-called "shithole countries" have not impoverished the United States; they have enriched it with their work, creativity, resilience, and dreams. To forget this is not only historically ignorant, it is morally unacceptable.
Trump's phrase "shithole countries" was not simply an ill-advised remark; it was the crystallization of a worldview that values people based on their place of origin and, consequently, reinforces notions of white supremacy and structural racism. The repercussions of such words resonate both in immigration policy and in the global perception of the United States as a nation of immigrants.
THERE IS NOTHING MORE EXCLUSIONARY THAN BEING POOR
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