US security boss says if Trump is racist so is Turnbull

The United States Homeland Security chief has said anyone who says President Donald Trump is racist would have to say the same about Malcolm Turnbull.

Kirstjen Nielsen said the merit-based immigration system Mr Trump wants to introduce is the ‘exact’ same as what Australia currently has.

The president allegedly described Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as s**tholes and suggested the US should accept more people from nations like Norway.

‘I take a little bit of offence to the comments and suggestions that the president is racist,’ Ms Nielsen said during an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

She said a merit-based immigration system was already in place in Australia and Canada.

‘I’m sure that we are not, any of us, suggesting that Canada and Australia and their leaders are racists.’

Interviewer Chris Wallace suggested Mr Trump ‘seems to be suggesting you’d rather have a janitor from Norway than a doctor from Haiti’, but Ms Nielsen disagreed.

‘I think what he’s trying to do is move away from a quota-based system, whether that’s a quota of underrepresented countries or a quota of Norway, for example,’ she said.

‘I think what he’s trying to say is we need to look at the individual and ensure that we look at those who can bring merit to our country.’

Mr Trump allegedly made the ‘s**thole’ comment in front of Democrat and Republican members of Congress

Ms Nielsen was in the Oval Office on Thursday when Mr Trump allegedly made the ‘s**thole’ comment in front of Democrat and Republican members of Congress, while discussing a potential bipartisan immigration deal.

Mr Trump has denied meaking the comment.

Ms Nielsen said she didn’t ‘recall him saying that exact phrase’.

Republican Senator Lindsay Graham said he confronted Mr Trump about using disparaging remarks, although he did explicitly confirm the president used the word ‘s**thole’.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin told reporters he heard the president use the word ‘s**thole’. 

Kirstjen Nielsen said the merit-based immigration system Mr Trump wants to introduce is the ‘exact’ same as what Australia currently has