President Donald Trump referred to a group of nations that included African countries and Haiti as "s--thole countries" during a meeting with a bipartisan group of senators Thursday at the White House, a Democratic aide briefed on the meeting told NBC News.
Trump's comments were first reported by the Washington Post, which said the group of nations referenced also included El Salvador.
The comments came as senators huddled in the Oval Office with the president to discuss the path forward on an immigration deal. Trump questioned why the United States would want people from nations such as Haiti, while being briefed on changes to the visa lottery system.
When the group discussed immigration from Africa, the aide said, Trump asked why we want all these people from "all these s--thole countries" and that the U.S. should have more people from places like Norway.
A spokesman for the White House did not deny the president's use of the vulgar word. Hours later, Trump said on Twitter Friday morning that, "the language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!"
