A private Oval Office meeting about immigration exploded into an international controversy after lawmakers said President Donald Trump used a vulgar term to describe Haiti and African nations while questioning why the United States should accept immigrants from those countries.

According to Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who attended the meeting, Trump referred to certain nations as “shithole countries” while lawmakers discussed a bipartisan immigration proposal.

Trump disputed parts of the account the following morning, acknowledging that he had used “tough” language during the meeting but saying the specific language attributed to him was inaccurate.

The controversy quickly moved far beyond another Washington dispute over immigration.

It became an international argument over how the president of the United States viewed immigrants from predominantly Black nations.

A Bipartisan Immigration Meeting Goes Off the Rails

The January 11 meeting was supposed to focus on immigration legislation, including the future of immigrants protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

Lawmakers were attempting to negotiate a bipartisan agreement addressing DACA along with border security and other immigration issues.

During the discussion, participants reportedly raised protections affecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries.

Durbin said Trump responded by questioning why the United States should accept people from what Trump characterized with the vulgar term.

Trump was also reported to have questioned why more immigrants could not come from countries such as Norway.

The contrast immediately became central to the controversy: the president was reported to have disparaged predominantly Black and poorer countries while expressing interest in immigration from a wealthy, predominantly white European nation.

Durbin Says Trump Said It Repeatedly

The following day, Durbin publicly confirmed the reports.

Durbin said Trump had used the vulgar expression during the meeting and characterized the president's comments as hateful and racist.

His account carried particular significance because he had been physically present in the room.

Republican lawmakers who attended offered differing recollections. Some said they did not remember hearing the specific phrase, while Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham did not publicly repeat Trump's exact words but said he had directly challenged the president during the meeting.

The result was an unusual dispute over what the president had said inside the Oval Office — with lawmakers who had attended the same meeting giving differing public accounts.

Trump Responds

Trump took to Twitter on January 12.

“The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough,” he wrote, while adding that the reported wording was not the language he had used.

He separately denied making derogatory remarks about Haitians and said claims that he had demanded they be removed from an immigration proposal were fabricated.

Trump continued arguing for a merit-based immigration system and criticized the bipartisan DACA proposal presented to him.

Several days later, when reporters asked whether he wanted more immigrants from Norway, Trump did not directly answer the original allegation. He instead said, “I want them to come in from everywhere.”

International Backlash

The reaction extended far beyond Washington.

The reported comments generated condemnation from diplomats, political leaders and organizations representing African nations.

For many critics, the controversy was not simply about profanity.

It was about which countries Trump had reportedly chosen to disparage and which country he had reportedly presented as a preferable source of immigrants.

The remarks also arrived within the broader context of Trump's immigration agenda. His administration had already pursued restrictions on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, pushed for reductions in some forms of legal immigration, sought funding for a wall along the Mexican border and moved to end DACA.

The January 11 meeting therefore became part of a much larger debate over the administration's approach to immigration and nationality.

Another Controversy Defined by Trump's Own Words

There was no recording publicly available from the closed-door meeting, leaving Americans to weigh the accounts of those who were present.

Trump maintained that the specific reported language was inaccurate.

Durbin maintained that Trump had said it — repeatedly.

What was not disputed was that an immigration negotiation inside the Oval Office had turned into an international diplomatic controversy within hours.

Instead of beginning 2018 with a bipartisan immigration agreement, Washington was debating whether the president of the United States had disparaged entire nations and their people while suggesting that America should seek immigrants from places such as Norway.

The phrase attributed to Trump would follow his presidency long after the immigration proposal discussed that day disappeared from the headlines.