Donald Trump was quoted insulting Nigerians. He has denied saying Nigerians live in huts.
US President Donald Trump has denied making disparaging and insulting remarks targeted against Nigerians and other immigrants.
The New York Times reports that during a meeting held in the Oval Office in June, Trump said immigrants from Haiti “all have AIDS”, Afghanistan was described as a ”haven of terrorists" and Nigerians living in the US were scoffed at by the US President for residing in huts back home.
“Forty thousand (migrants) had come from Nigeria, Mr. Trump added. Once they had seen the United States, they would never ‘go back to their huts’ in Africa,” the New York Times (NYT) piece read, quoting sources at the meeting.
Travel ban
Trump was reportedly fuming at the number of immigrants in the US, in spite of his travel bans.
The US president proposed an anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim agenda during his campaign to become America’s number one citizen.
“More than 2,500 were from Afghanistan, a terrorist haven, the president complained,” officials in the meeting reportedly told NYT.
“Haiti had sent 15,000 people. They all have AIDS”.
However, the White House has denied that the president made those remarks.
'Lies'
White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, agreed that the said meeting did take place.
Sanders however added that the NYT was lying about what transpired at that meeting.
Sanders said John Kelly who is the chief of staff, H.R. McMaster who is the national security adviser, and Rex Tillerson who is the US secretary of state, were all in the meeting and have attested that the NYT lied.
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“General Kelly, General McMaster, Secretary Tillerson, and all other senior staff actually in the meeting deny these outrageous claims,” Sanders said of the story.
“And it’s both sad and telling that the New York Times would print the lies of their anonymous ‘sources’ anyway.”