At a raucous rally in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, on December 10, 2025, former President Donald Trump once again thrust himself into the center of controversy, openly admitting to using the slur "shithole countries" to describe Haiti and African nations during a 2018 meeting with lawmakers. The admission, delivered to a cheering crowd at the Mount Airy Casino Resort, marked a stark reversal from Trump’s earlier denials and signaled an escalation in his rhetoric targeting immigrants and political opponents, particularly Somali Americans and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Trump’s remarks at the rally were not limited to revisiting past controversies. He doubled down, disparaging Somalia as "filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime" and announcing a permanent pause on immigration from what he described as "Third World countries," including Afghanistan, Haiti, and Somalia. "I’ve also announced a permanent pause on Third World migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and many other countries," Trump declared, according to Global News. The crowd’s response was immediate and enthusiastic, with supporters echoing his sentiments and chanting slogans like "Send her back!" in reference to Representative Omar.
Reflecting on the 2018 meeting that first sparked the international outcry, Trump recounted, “Remember I said that to the senators? ‘Our country was going to hell. And we had a meeting and I said, ‘Why is it we only take people from shithole countries,’ right? ‘Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden? — just a few — let us have a few. From Denmark — do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people, do you mind?'” His words, once denied on social media, are now wielded as a badge of authenticity to his base. During the original fallout in 2018, Trump had posted on X, “this was not the language I used,” and insisted, “Never said ‘take them out.’ Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians.”
But the Pennsylvania rally made it clear that any filters Trump once maintained have vanished. As AFP reported, University of British Columbia immigration policy expert Terri Givens observed, “Any filter he might have had is gone.” Trump’s rhetoric, once confined to dog-whistle politics, has become explicit and unapologetic. “For Trump, it doesn’t matter whether an immigrant obeys the law, or owns a business, or has been here for decades,” Syracuse University political science professor Mark Brockway told AFP. “They are caught in the middle of Trump’s fight against an invented evil enemy.”
At the Pennsylvania rally, Trump’s remarks took a particularly personal turn as he targeted Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Somali American who has long been a lightning rod for his ire. Mocking Omar, Trump said, “I love this Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is, with the little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but b—h. She’s always complaining. She comes from her country, where I mean, it’s considered about the worst country in the world, right?” He went on to repeat debunked conspiracy theories about Omar’s immigration history, alleging, “She married her brother to get in. Therefore, she’s here illegally. She should get the hell out. Throw her the hell out. She does nothing but complain.”
The crowd responded with chants of “Send her back!”—a refrain that first gained national attention during Trump’s 2019 campaign events. Omar, whose family fled civil war in Somalia and spent years in a Kenyan refugee camp before arriving in the U.S., has consistently denied the marriage allegations, calling them “absolutely false and ridiculous” in a 2016 statement. No credible evidence has ever substantiated the claim.
Omar fired back at Trump’s latest comments on social media, writing, “Trump’s obsession with me is beyond weird. He needs serious help. Since he has no economic policies to tout, he’s resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead.” She added, “He continues to be a national embarrassment.” The exchange underscores the escalating tension between the two, with Trump intensifying his attacks on both Omar and the broader Somali community in the United States.
Trump’s rhetoric has not gone unnoticed by political figures on both sides of the aisle. Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey condemned the remarks as “more proof of his racist, anti-immigrant agenda,” according to AFP. Yet, some Republican allies, like Florida lawmaker Randy Fine, defended Trump’s bluntness. “Not all cultures are equal and not all countries are equal,” Fine said on CNN. “The president speaks in language that Americans understand, he is blunt.”
Beyond personal attacks, Trump has framed his immigration stance as a matter of national survival, warning that continued migration from certain countries would lead the U.S. “the wrong way.” On December 2, 2025, Trump told reporters, “They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Your country stinks and we don’t want them in our country.” He further described Ilhan Omar and her associates as “garbage,” insisting, “Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage.”
The former president’s rhetoric has also revived echoes of past nativist movements in American history. As AFP noted, Trump’s calls for “REVERSE MIGRATION” after an Afghan national attacked two National Guard soldiers in Washington align with far-right European theories advocating mass expulsion of foreigners deemed incapable of assimilation. White House senior adviser Stephen Miller amplified this narrative on social media, writing, “This is the great lie of mass migration. You are not just importing individuals. You are importing societies...At scale, migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.”
Experts say such rhetoric serves a dual purpose: it rallies Trump’s base by stoking fears about cultural change and economic insecurity, while providing a scapegoat for broader anxieties about rising costs of living and job security. “When immigration spikes as an issue, it spikes because of economics sometimes, but it also spikes because of these larger sort of foundational questions about what it means to be an American,” University of Albany history professor Carl Bon Tempo told AFP.
Trump’s embrace of explicit language and hardline policies—such as the suspension of immigration applications from nationals of 19 of the world’s poorest countries—has drawn condemnation from civil rights groups and international observers. Yet, his supporters see in his bluntness a rejection of political correctness and a defense of American identity as they define it.
As the 2025 campaign season heats up, Trump’s rhetoric shows no sign of abating. Whether it will galvanize his base or further alienate moderate voters remains to be seen, but the former president has made clear that he intends to continue wielding his megaphone—no matter who gets caught in the crossfire.
