Did Trump Say 'Shithole' Or 'Shithouse'? It Really Doesn't Matter.
The White House and its surrogates appear to be coalescing around a particularly hot take regarding President Donald Trump’s reported “shithole” remarks: Trump actually used the phrase “shithouse countries” to describe African nations, Haiti and El Salvador.
Like other excuses for Trump’s latest racist immigration remarks, this one is very, uh, shitty.
The line of argument began over the weekend, after GOP Sens. David Perdue (Ga.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) denied Trump had called the places “shithole countries” during an Oval Office meeting on immigration reform. Instead, according to a tweet from the Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey, the senators maybe heard Trump say “shithouse.”
White House official told me tonight there is debate internally on whether Trump said "shithole" or "shithouse." Perdue and Cotton seem to have heard latter, this person said, and are using to deny.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) January 15, 2018
Such parsing is a clear departure from Trump’s approach ― which has been to reject the reports outright and claim once again he is “the least racist person” ― so it wasn’t immediately clear why the specific fecal phrase mattered.
On Tuesday, however, the “hole” versus “house” debate took another twist, as some Republicans reportedly began claiming the two phrases could be interpreted differently ― with “house” being less bad.
Why are some Trump allies arguing that POTUS said "shithouse" rather than "shithole"? Some Rs say "shithouse countries" refers to poor countries w/no plumbing -- places where u have to walk out to the shithouse -- and therefore the phrase is NOT racist.
— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) January 16, 2018
For what its worth, here's new spin from source very close to WH: When Trump said "shit house" countries (not "shit hole") at immigration meeting, he was actually thinking about real estate.
— Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff) January 16, 2018
But this scandal was never about Trump using profanity. It was about a president with a lengthy history of racist comments making clear that racial stereotypes about majority black and brown nations are actively guiding his approach to immigration policy. Trump’s obvious antipathy toward those countries continues to serve as an ideological underpinning for an agenda that would allow fewer of their residents into the U.S., while instead favoring people from whiter countries. (Trump reportedly suggested during the meeting that the U.S. should bring in more people from places like Norway.)
It was this troubling sentiment that drew widespread condemnation from figures across the political spectrum, who saw Trump’s comments as contrary to American ideals that supposedly value diversity and espouse compassion for the less fortunate.
Whether Trump said “shithole” or “shithouse,” this meaningless debate is total bullshit.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
