What he called them · First term · № 61
Reported by the NYT to have said Haitian visa holders 'all have AIDS' and Nigerians would not 'go back to their huts'
“[paraphrase] Haiti had sent 15,000 people. They “all have AIDS,” he grumbled ... Once they had seen the United States, they would never “go back to their huts” in Africa (as reported by The New York Times, citing two officials)”
- Said
- , Oval Office immigration meeting (reported December 23, 2017)
- Subject
- Haitian and Nigerian immigrants
- Target
- Immigrants
- Topic
- Immigration
- Era
- First term
What happened
The New York Times reported on December 23, 2017, that Trump made the remarks in a June 2017 Oval Office meeting while reading a list of 2017 visa recipients. The account came from one attendee and another person briefed by someone who was there, plus two officials. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied it, and the White House said he never used the words 'AIDS' or 'huts.' Several participants told the Times they did not recall the words. Trump's words are known only through these secondhand accounts.