NATION/WORLD
Saturday, January 13, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 9A
‘Reprehensible and racist:’ Trump’s remarks outrage the world
JOHANNESBURG (AP) —
Africans were shocked on Friday
to find President Donald Trump
had finally taken an interest in their
continent. But it wasn’t what people
had hoped for.
Using vulgar language, Trump
on Thursday questioned why the
U.S. would accept more immigrants
from Haiti and “shithole countries”
in Africa rather than places like
Norway in rejecting a bipartisan
immigration deal. On Friday he
denied using that language.
The African Union continental
body told The Associated Press it
was “frankly alarmed” by Trump’s
comments.
“Given the historical reality of
how many Africans arrived in the
United States as slaves, this state-
ment flies in the face of all accepted
behavior and practice,” AU spokes-
woman Ebba Kalondo said.
Some African governments
found themselves in an awkward
position. As top recipients of U.S.
aid, some hesitated to jeopardize
it by criticizing Trump, especially
as his administration has sought to
slash foreign assistance.
“Unless it was specifically
said about South Sudan, we have
nothing to say,” a South Sudan
government spokesman told the AP.
But Botswana’s government
called Trump’s comment “repre-
hensible and racist,” saying the U.S.
ambassador had been summoned
to clarify whether the country was
regarded so poorly after years
of cordial relations. Senegal’s
President Macky Sall said he was
shocked and that “Africa and the
black race merit the respect and
consideration of all.”
“Well, that is the
perfect definition of
racism. That is all
I have to say.”
— Wangui Muraguri,
Kenyan entrepreneur
AP Photo/Sunday Alamba
Pedestrians shop in a roadside market in Lagos, Nigeria, Friday.
Africans were shocked on Friday to find President Donald Trump
on Thursday questioned why the U.S. would accept more immi-
grants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa rather than
places like Norway in rejecting a bipartisan immigration deal.
Both nations have been praised
by the U.S. government as stable
democracies in the region.
South Africa’s ruling African
National Congress called Trump’s
comments “extremely offensive,”
while opposition leader Mmusi
Maimane said “the hatred of
Obama’s roots now extends to an
entire continent.” Uganda’s state
minister for international relations,
Henry Okello Oryem, called the
remarks “unfortunate and regret-
table” and hoped that heads of
state will reply at an African Union
summit later this month.
African media outlets and the
continent’s young, increasingly
connected population were not shy,
with some tweeting sleek photos of
African landscapes and urban areas
with the hashtag of the word.
“Well, that is the perfect defini-
tion of racism. That is all I have to
say,” Kenyan entrepreneur Wangui
Muraguri told the AP in response to
Trump.
“Casual Friday at the White
House is soon to include hoods
and tiki torches at this rate,”
South African media outlet Daily
Maverick wrote.
Trump’s
comments
were
“shocking and shameful” and
“I’m sorry, but there’s no other
word one can use but racist,” said
a spokesman for the U.N. human
rights office, Rupert Colville.
Many on the world’s second
most populous continent reached
for their smartphones, long-prac-
ticed in defending it from easy
stereotypes. While 40 percent of the
world’s poor live in sub-Saharan
Africa, according to the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund, the region
also has billionaires, reality shows
and a growing middle class.
The World Bank on Friday
tweeted that sub-Saharan Africa’s
economic growth this year is
forecast at 3.2 percent. That was
the U.S. economy’s annual rate
of growth from July through
September, according to Commerce
Department data last month.
Some in Africa decided to own
Trump’s vulgar language or throw
it back in his face.
“Good morning from the greatest
most beautiful ‘shithole country’ in
the world!!!” South African Broad-
casting Corporation anchor Leanne
Manas tweeted.
“As someone from South
Shithole, Trevor is deeply offended
by the president’s remarks,” The
Daily Show tweeted of its South
African-born host, Trevor Noah.
Others said they thought Trump
had a point, in a way.
“Trump is absolutely right,”
said Mamady Traore, a 30-year-old
sociologist in Guinea. “When
you have heads of state who mess
with the constitutions to perpet-
uate their power. When you have
rebel factions that kill children,
disembowel women as saints, who
mutilate innocent civilians.”
In Kenya, East Africa’s
economic hub, political activist
Boniface Mwangi pleaded: “Please
don’t confuse the ... leaders we
Africans elect with our beautiful
continent.” He later told the AP that
“Africa gave America the greatest
president ever” in Barack Obama.
“It is actually a disgrace for one of
the best men to occupy that office to
be succeeded by an idiot.”
Trump’s comments highlighted
months of concerns about his lack
of focus on Africa, including empty
ambassadorial posts in key countries
like South Africa, Egypt, Congo
and Somalia. A list maintained by
the Washington-based American
Foreign Service Association says
eight such posts are vacant.
The U.S. president is only
hurting himself both at home and
abroad, some Africans said.
“He has not only insulted
Africans, he has also insulted
African-Americans,” said Sylvester
Odion Akhaine, associate professor
of international relations at the
Lagos State University in Nigeria.
“Internationally, such language will
deepen the isolation of the United
States, a country that is already
losing its global prestige.”
One lawmaker in Ghana called
for a boycott by developing coun-
tries against the United States until
Trump leaves office. “The sooner
he is made aware that America
needs the world and the world
needs America the better it is for all
of us,” Ras Mubarak said.
BRIEFLY
Report: Trump
lawyer brokered
$130,000 payment
to porn star
WASHINGTON (AP) —
President Donald Trump’s
personal lawyer brokered
a $130,000 payment to a
porn star to prevent her
from publicly discussing
an alleged sexual encounter
with Trump, according to
a report Friday in The Wall
Street Journal.
Trump met Stephanie
Clifford, who goes by the
name Stormy Daniels in
films, at a golf event in
2006 — a year after Trump’s
marriage to his wife,
Melania. According to the
Journal’s report, Clifford
began talking with ABC
News in the fall of 2016 for
a story involving an alleged
relationship with Trump, but
reached a $130,000 deal a
month before the election,
which prevented her from
going public.
Trump’s longtime
attorney Michael Cohen
arranged for the payment
through Clifford’s lawyer,
Keith Davidson, the Journal
reported.
In a statement to
the Journal, Cohen did
not address his role in
negotiating the supposed
payment but said Trump
denies any such relationship
with Clifford. Clifford has
previously denied an alleged
relationship with Trump.
On Friday afternoon,
the White House issued
a statement calling the
Journal’s story “old,
recycled reports, which
were published and strongly
denied prior to the election.”
Cohen also accused the
Journal of perpetuating “a
false narrative for over a
year.”
Just days before the
2016 election, the Journal
E !
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NEW CEO
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Thursday, January 18
5pm-6:30pm
MEET & GREET
published a story stating that
the National Enquirer — run
by David Pecker, a fervid
supporter of Trump — had
paid $150,000 to silence
former Playboy Playmate
Karen McDougal about
a sexual relationship she
allegedly had with Trump.
White House
doctor: Trump in
‘excellent health’
WASHINGTON
(AP) — President Donald
Trump’s White House
physician declared him in
“excellent health” after the
president received his first
medical checkup at Walter
Reed military hospital
on Friday, undergoing a
physical examination amid
suggestions in a recent book
and by his detractors that
he’s mentally unfit.
Dr. Ronny Jackson,
in a statement released
by the White House, said
the examination “went
exceptionally well. The
President is in excellent
health and I look forward
to briefing some of the
details on Tuesday.” Trump
spent about three hours
at the medical facility
in Bethesda, Maryland,
outside Washington, for the
Friday checkup, his first as
president, before departing
for Florida for the weekend.
The fairly routine exam
for previous presidents
has taken on outsized
importance in the age of
Trump, given the tone
of some of his tweets,
comments attributed to some
of his close advisers and
Trump’s recent slurring of
words on national TV.
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