The media freakout was hard to miss on Thursday as the Washington Post reported that President Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries as “s***holes”. The media proceeded to jump straight to the line that President Trump was racist. Aspersions aside, President Trump has been consistent with his criticism of America’s immigration policy, which foregoes merit in place of circumstance.
 
The President pragmatically told the FBI’s graduating class at Quantico last month about the visa lottery, “They come in by lottery. They give us their worst people. They put ‘em in a bin but in his hand, when he’s pickin’ ‘em, is really the worst of the worst. ‘Congratulations, you’re going to the United States, it’s OK.’ What a system, lottery system.”
 
The reality is that these are among the poorest countries in the world, and immigrants from these countries cannot leave all their problems at home. According to the World Bank, Haiti’s Gross Domestic Product is 140 out of 198 counties, and El Salvador ranks slightly higher at number 99. Haiti is the product of failed socialist governance and systemic corruption, and El Salvador likewise with civil war and endemic violent crime. The American people had their chance to pick in 2016 between a duplicitous diplomat and a blunt businessman who calls them like he sees them; clearly, Americans picked uncomfortable truths over just another Washington lie.