‘The Donald’ has finally lost the plot

Even those sympathetic towards US President Donald Trump would be hanging their heads in shame after his most recent gaffe.

The outspoken politician, discussing immigration controls, described African and other Third World nations as “sh*thole countries”.

There is very little anyone can do to defend the accusation that the remark is racist. Trump’s spokespeople have also not denied he uttered the words.

Already, African nations have reacted in anger.

The Botswana government summoned the US ambassador to Gaborone and “expressed its displeasure”, as it said in an official statement at the president’s remarks.

The Botswana government went even further, using language seldom seen in the diplomatic world, especially when referring to a head of state, calling Trump’s words “irresponsible, reprehensible and racist”.

A lawmaker from Ghana, Ras Mubarak, called for a boycott of the US and even members of Trump’s own Republican Party with Haitian origins reacted with outrage at his including Haiti in his assessment.

A black journalist on CNN made an extraordinary public comment, live on air, expressing his anger. While we know Donald Trump’s major focus has been “pork barrel politics” – and the concerns of the conservative Americans who voted him into office – it is stunning that he could make such an ill-considered public comment, especially in this day and age, when anything rapidly “goes viral” on social media.

It showed him up not only as racist and narrow-minded, but reckless, given his important, powerful and influential position on the global stage.

But, fundamentally, it was deeply inhuman, as one American columnist pointed out.

Jonathan Alter wrote about the heroism of US Army private Emmanuel Mensah, who rushed into a burning building in the Bronx in New York in December to rescue four people.

“On his third trip in, he died. Mensah was from Ghana, one of President Trump’s ‘sh*thole countries’.”

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