How did Donald Trump end up calling a host of nations “shithole countries” whose (mostly black) people were undesirable immigrants to the U.S.? The overarching answer, of course, is that he’s a vile racist. But to get to the specifics, the Washington Post has assembled a detailed, leak-heavy account of the immigration meeting at which Trump went off. Two telling things jump out about the relationship between Trump and congressional Republicans: they can manipulate him, and in exchange for what he offers them, they’ll sacrifice any pretense of integrity. The second thing first. You may recall that Republican Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA) issued a statement denying that Trump said what he said. Well, here's the backstory on that:
Three White House officials said Perdue and Cotton told the White House that they heard “shithouse” rather than “shithole,” allowing them to deny the president’s comments on television over the weekend. The two men initially said publicly that they could not recall what the president said.
Oh, so they think maybe he said “shithouse” rather than “shithole” and so the way they presented that was “we do not recall the president saying these comments specifically.” How truthful and forthcoming of them!
As for Trump’s side of the deal … wow, is he a pathetic, easily manipulated man-child.
When President Trump spoke by phone with Sen. Richard J. Durbin around 10:15 a.m. last Thursday, he expressed pleasure with Durbin’s outline of a bipartisan immigration pact and praised the high-ranking Illinois Democrat’s efforts, according to White House officials and congressional aides.
The president then asked if Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), his onetime foe turned ally, was on board, which Durbin affirmed. Trump invited the lawmakers to visit with him at noon, the people familiar with the call said.
But when they arrived at the Oval Office, the two senators were surprised to find that Trump was far from ready to finalize the agreement. He was “fired up” and surrounded by hard-line conservatives such as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who seemed confident that the president was now aligned with them, according to one person with knowledge of the meeting.
What happened in the interim is that Trump’s hardline racist, anti-immigrant aides like Stephen Miller put out the bat signal, got Trump all lathered up, and brought in extremist members of Congress like Cotton, Perdue, and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). So between 10:15 AM and noon, Trump completely changed his tune from “let’s have bipartisan talks to a productive deal” to “shithole countries.”