During A Fundraiser With Billionaire Donors, Trump Complains U.S. Doesn’t Get Immigrants From ‘Nice Countries’ Like ‘Denmark’ & ‘Switzerland’

While speaking at a fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida, on April 6, former President Donald Trump declared that the United States is not getting immigrants from “nice countries.” 

The event took place at the home of hedge-fund billionaire John Paulson. 

“These are people coming in from prisons and jails,” Trump reportedly told the crowd. “They’re coming in from just unbelievable places and countries, countries that are a disaster.”

“And when I said, you know, ‘Why can’t we allow people to come in from nice countries,’ I’m trying to be nice,” he claimed. “Nice countries, you know like Denmark, Switzerland? Do we have any people coming in from Denmark? How about Switzerland? How about Norway?”

The billionaires in the audience laughed when they heard this.

He complained about the criticism his infamous “s-hole countries” comment received in 2018.

“And you know, they took that as a very terrible comment, but I felt it was fine,” he stated

He also lamented about how migrants were coming to the U.S. from Yemen, a place where the people are “blowing each other up all over the place.” 

The former president also mentioned that migrants from Latin America “make the Hells Angels [Motorcycle Club] look like extremely nice people.”

“They’ve been shipped in, brought in, deposited in our country, and they’re with us tonight,” he continued. “In fact, I don’t think they’re on this island, but I know they’re on that island right there. That’s West Palm. Congratulations over there. But they’ll be here. Eventually, they’ll be here.”

On January 11, 2018, Trump made his “s-hole countries” about El Salvador, Haiti and certain African nations. The comments were made during a White House meeting on immigration reform.

“Why are we having all these people from s-hole countries come here,” Trump stated after being shown a proposal to reignite protections for immigrants from those countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal. 

Trump demanded to know why America would accept immigrants from these countries and not places like Norway, whose prime minister he met on the day prior.

He also “suggested he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt that they “help the U.S. economically.”

Trump’s comments drew quick and bipartisan condemnation. Many Democrats called him a “racist.”

In May 2023, Trump, during a campaign video on Twitter, stated that if he gets reelected in 2024, he would bring an end to birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants. This move would violate how the 14th Amendment has historically been interpreted.

In a press release, he mentioned that parents would need to be American-born citizens or legal permanent residents to apply for birthright citizenship.

If it had been enacted at the time, this policy might have impacted the former president’s wife, Melania Trump, and his son, Barron Trump. His wife arrived in the U.S. on an EB-1 work visa in 2001 and had not been an American citizen until 2006—after their son’s birthdate. As a result, his plan would not allow his son to receive a guaranteed path to citizenship since only one of his parents was born in America.

During a rally in Dayton, Ohio, in late March, Trump declared that some undocumented immigrants should not be called people and warned that it would be a “bloodbath” if he did not become the next president.