FOREIGN POLICY/IMMIGRATION/RACISM/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “South Africa and Nigeria have joined a chorus of nations condemning President Trump’s inflammatory remarks on immigration, as Africa experts warned that the controversy threatened to set back American interests across the world’s fastest-growing continent.
Since Thursday [1-11-18], when several participants in a meeting with Mr. Trump said he had asked why the United States should take in migrants from ‘shithole countries,’ including Haiti and African nations, the Trump administration has been erratic in its account of what happened. On Friday, Mr. Trump insisted on Twitter that ‘this was not the language used,’ and on Sunday, he told reporters, ‘I’m not a racist.’.. The State Department, meanwhile, has instructed diplomats not to deny Mr. Trump’s remarks, but simply to listen to complaints.
Botswana, Ghana, Haiti, Namibia, Senegal and the African Union have all protested Mr. Trump’s remarks; Botswana asked the United States ‘to clarify if Botswana is regarded as a *shithole* country.’
Reuben E. Brigety II, who was the United States ambassador to the African Union from 2013 to 2015, said on Monday that he had been in touch with African ministers and ambassadors throughout the weekend… Mr. Brigety said that Mr. Trump’s remarks were on the agenda for the annual African Union summit meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this month… The United States has many interests in Africa: battling Islamist insurgencies like Boko Haram in West Africa and the Shabab in the Horn of Africa; reducing political instability and improving governance, particularly in conflict-torn nations like South Sudan and Somalia; and taking advantage of the dynamism of a rapidly urbanizing continent that is rich in natural resources and has a young and growing population.”
-Kimon de Greef and Sewell Chan, “Trump Comments, Infuriating Africans, May Set Back U.S. Interests,” The New York Times online, Jan. 15, 2018