On Thursday, January 11th President Trump called several countries 'shitholes'. In the context of not wanting more immigrants from these shithole countries, particularly Latin American countries, such as Haiti, and some African countries. This is certainly not something any President should say about any country. Pure ignorance and racism coming from our commander in chief. Great.
However, this shouldn't be a surprising headline considering Trump's past mockery of different peoples and his noncondemning of white supremacists. Still, this is the worst of it. It may have been acceptable for a president to say racist things in the recent past, cue Richard Nixon.
Though, these comments were made in private with the intention of no one outside the room hearing them. Trump may have made this comment with the same intention, however, as we all know, it's the 21st century and it's near impossible to keep anything private, especially when you're in the public eye.
So, Trump made another ignorant comment. Add it to the list. Hopefully, this will encourage more protest from the left and more action to be taken from the Democrats in Congress. Maybe some of the Trump supports will even come-to and take a look at the man they've been blindly supporting. The reaction I am most interested to see is that of the GOP.
The Republicans in Congress, up to this point, have already had some difficulty standing by Trump in some of his decisions. As the nominee from the GOP, he has been difficult to work with. So, how will the Republicans respond to this racism from their own party?
It's no secret that within a party which consists of almost entirely old white men they are bound to be a bit discriminatory. Their interests pertain to their own demographic, and the legislature they fight for shows this. The work and support for the new tax bill between the GOP and Trump show they want to be able to work together. But when Trump makes comments like this, can they really support him?
This may be a pivotal moment for the Republican party. If they have any regard for the public opinion, and they must if they want to be re-elected, they certainly cannot support this. In this case with such a blatantly ignorant comment, not opposing it can be considered supporting it. Therefore, we may see a split in the Republican party between the new man in charge and the rest of the party.
To go against a Republican President as a Republican is bold, however, the circumstances have lent themselves for a time of mutiny within the party to keep the party name out of the muck.