• Botswana strongly rebuked to President Donald Trump’s reported comments about Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations being “shithole countries.”
  • Botswana’s government asked its ambassador to the US to clarify whether the US regarded Botswana as a “shithole” country.
  • Many swiftly condemned the president’s comments, though some of his biggest supporters defended him.

The government of Botswana issued a blistering statement Friday in response to President Donald Trump’s reported reference to Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations as “shithole countries.”

Botswana’s Ministry of International Affairs and Cooperation called on the US’s ambassador to Botswana “to express its displeasure at the alleged utterances made by the President of the US.”

The ministry also asked the ambassador to clarify whether the US regarded Botswana as a “shithole” country, adding that Trump’s comments were “highly irresponsible, reprehensible, and racist.”

During a Thursday meeting on immigration with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, Trump criticized protections the US has given to immigrants from various underdeveloped countries.

"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to reports from multiple news outlets.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, who was at the meeting, confirmed to reporters on Friday that Trump had said that.

Trump and the lawmakers had been discussing a visa lottery program that annually allows as many as 50,000 citizens from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the US to reside in the US legally, as well as programs that temporarily protect certain immigrants from deportation that the White House is ending.

The president specifically criticized the Temporary Protected Status the US has given to immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and some African countries.

Botswana wasn't the only country to lash out against the president's comments. Haiti's government and ambassador to the US "vehemently condemn" Trump's statement, the ambassador, Paul Altidor, told an NBC News contributor.

According to the contributor, Altidor said, "Either the president has been misinformed or he is miseducated," adding that Haiti's government had formally summoned a US official to explain the comments.

Trump's statement provoked a visceral response as observers around the world condemned it. The UN's Human Rights body said "there is no other word one can use but 'racist'" to describe it.

Some Trump supporters backed the president by arguing in defense of the spirit of what he was trying to say - that Americans do not benefit from taking in immigrants from third-world countries.

On Friday, Trump took to Twitter to defend using "tough" language, but said he "never said anything derogatory" about Haitians and suggested he should record future meetings with lawmakers.

Here's the Botswana government's full statement: