Donald Trump's ex-wife says he's not racist, just confused

  • 16/01/2018
Donald Trump.
Donald Trump. Photo credit: Getty

Ivana Trump has defended her former husband, United States President Donald Trump, after he referred to Haiti, El Salvador and parts of Africa as "shithole countries".

Mr Trump made the remarks during a meeting with lawmakers on Thursday (local time), while discussing immigration.

"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Mr Trump reportedly said.

Ex-wife Ivana Trump has now lept to his defence, saying he could be getting confused by all the differing messages from his communication staff.

"He has so many people telling him left and right, what to say and what not to say, and things like that, and sometimes maybe it gets confusing," she told Good Morning Britain.

She believes his tweeting may be a solution to the problem, as it allows people to see the real unfiltered Donald Trump.

"If he tweets, it's out of his mouth," she said. "Sometimes, maybe it's not clear, but at least it's exactly what he thinks."

Mr Trump has denied using the specific term "shithole", but does say he used "tough" language to describe the situation.

"The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," he tweeted.

"What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!"

Two of the lawmakers at the meeting - Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham - confirmed Mr Trump used the word "shithole".

The four other attendees of the meeting denied the word was said, claimed they could not remember, or refused to confirm or deny the incident.

Newshub.