The New Yorker:

What does it say that the President doesn’t even feel he needs to hide his most profane and radical views anymore?

By Susan B. Glasser

In January of 2018, Donald Trump hosted a group of lawmakers in the Oval Office to discuss the possibility of a bipartisan immigration deal. But, when talking about plans to give protected status to immigrants from African countries and other nations, such as El Salvador and Haiti, he grew frustrated. “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” he demanded, adding that he’d prefer to have more people enter the U.S. from largely white, European nations such as Norway. The remarks, published soon after the meeting in the Washington Post, caused a sensation. Trump denied the reporting, and a couple of the Republican senators who were present said they did not recall him making the comments. “This was not the language used,” Trump tweeted. He called the account “made up by Dems.” When questions about the statements persisted, he told reporters, “I am not a racist. I’m the least racist person you have ever interviewed.”

Nearly eight years later, and more than an hour and twenty-five minutes into a speech at a rally in Pennsylvania this week, Trump finally admitted that he had, in fact, used the “shithole” language. He then set off on an extended riff about how the United States takes in too many immigrants from Somalia and other places that are “filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.” Trump didn’t just acknowledge what he once denied; as the audience applauded, he lingered on his past remark as a fond memory.

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