In an interview that was released on Friday, as Donald Trump was under fire for cringe-worthy comments he made about immigrants from ‘s***hole nations, former President Barack Obama apprised that true leadership is about influencing peoples’ perceptions.
‘One of the things that Michelle figured out, in some ways faster than I did — was part of your ability to lead the country doesn’t have to do with legislation, doesn’t have to do with regulations, it has to do with shaping attitudes, shaping culture, increasing awareness,’ Obama said.
The former president who is nearly a year out of office taped the interview for David Letterman’s Netflix show ‘My Next Guest Needs No Introduction’ last fall.
Obama’s comments happened to drop just as Trump was battling a humiliating incident on Friday as he prepared to leave town for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

In an interview that was released on Friday, as Donald Trump was under fire for cringe-worthy comments he made about immigrants from ‘s***hole nations, former President Barack Obama apprised that true leadership is about influencing peoples’ perceptions
President Donald Trump denied making a widely condemned comment railing against accepting immigrants from ‘s***hole countries,’ even as he admitted to using ‘tough’ language in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers.
‘The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used,’ Trump wrote, using unusually passive language in an effort to walk back the comment.
‘What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made – a big setback for DACA!’ Trump tweeted Friday.
The tweet came hours after a bombshell report about Trump’s comments, which the White House did not immediately deny.
Trump made a public case against an immigration deal Friday by complaining that people from ‘high crime’ countries get to come here after getting blasted for ranting that people from ‘s***hole countries get to come here.’

President Donald Trump reportedly told lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office that he was mystified about why the U.S. imports people from ‘s***hole countries’ in the Third World
The president’s claim – issued hours after the first reports of his comments that the White House did not deny at the time – were directly contradicted by Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, who was in the meeting.
‘In the course of his comments, [Trump] said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist,’ Durbin told reporters Friday. ‘I use those words advisedly. I understand how powerful they are. But I cannot believe in this history of the White House, in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday,’ Durbin said.
‘You’ve seen the comments in the press,’ Durbin said. ‘I have not read one of them that’s inaccurate. To no surprise, the President started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. It is not true. He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly.’

‘He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly,’ said Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, who was in the meeting
‘When the question was raised about Haitians, for example. We have a group that have temporary protected status in the United States because they were the victims of crises, disasters, and political upheaval,’ Durbin continued. ‘The largest group’s El Salvadoran, the second is Honduran and the third is Haitian. And when I mentioned that fact to him he said Haitians, do we need more Haitians?’
‘And then he went on and he started to describe the immigration from Africa that was being protected in this bipartisan measure. That’s when he used these vile and vulgar comments calling the nations they come from shitholes. The exact word used by the president not just once, but repeatedly. That was the nature of this conversation.’
Trump’s public argument against the emerging deal to protect DACA recipients and make other immigration policy came after a flurry of rebukes from Democrats as well as Republicans in Congress.
Trump also denied having said ‘take them out’ in regard to Haitians, as his administration moves to remove temporary immigration status for people who fled disasters in Haiti and El Salvador years ago. Democrats want to give some ‘diversity’ visas to these people as changes are made to a special program that lets people apply from around the world to come here.
‘Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said ‘take them out,’ Trump wrote. ‘Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings – unfortunately, no trust!’
Among those condemning the comments were Hatian-American Republican Rep. Mia Love of Utah, who called the reported comments ‘unkind, divisive [and] elitist’ and demanded that Trump apologize.
Trump has not apologized, and the White House initially did not not deny he made the comments, which were reported by the Washington Post.

‘NOT THE LANGUAGE USED’: Trump’s cleanup statement used an unusually passive voice, saying the words ‘used by me’ were tough

Trump said the immigration deal was a ‘big step backwards’

He singled out ‘high crime countries,’ notably refraining from the term ‘s***hole countries,’ which he reportedly used but denied Friday morning

Trump predicted Democrats would threaten a government shutdown
‘The so-called bipartisan DACA deal presented yesterday to myself and a group of Republican Senators and Congressmen was a big step backwards,’ Trump tweeted. Then he brought up concerns that the deal wouldn’t fix what he calls ‘chain migration’ and a visa lottery system that lets people from an array of countries apply to come in.
He also sought to cast blame on Democrats if there is no final deal, with a government shutdown deadline just days away.
‘Because of the Democrats not being interested in life and safety, DACA has now taken a big step backwards. The Dems will threaten ‘shutdown,’ but what they are really doing is shutting down our military, at a time we need it most. Get smart, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’ Trump wrote
That system was put in place after the historic immigration system favored people from Europe.
‘Wall was not properly funded, Chain & Lottery were made worse and USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime…countries which are doing badly,’ Trump continued.
‘I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs,’ he wrote in a series of tweets.

Trump denied a report he made a comment about removing people who came here from Haiti after disasters struck their home country
The president previously said he would sign whatever Congress delivered to him.
Trump, frustrated with the nation’s continued responsibility for immigrants fleeing Third World natural disasters, asked members of Congress Thursday in vulgar terms why the United States had to shoulder such a burden.
‘Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?’ Trump said, according to two people who were briefed on the meeting and then leaked the comment to The Washington Post.
Trump was reportedly speaking about Haitians and citizens of various African nations.
‘Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out,’ he told people in the meeting, according to CNN.
The president, was open, however to immigrants from Asian countries, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing a White House official, because he felt that they help the country economically.
The comments has caused outrage around the world, with the United Nations calling President Trump ‘racist’.

UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville (pictured in Geneva) said there was no other word that could be used to describe President Trump’s comments other than ‘racist’

‘S***HOLE COUNTRY’: shows people walking past a street damaged by Hurricane Matthew, in Jeremie, in western Haiti. The country’s perilous state had meant its citizens have temporary protected status in the U.S. – apparently one of the causes of Trump’s extraordinary outburst – which is now being rescinded

Trump reportedly criticized African nations (Somalia is pictured above) during the meeting, angering the African Union

NATO PARADISE: Trump told senators that instead of importing immigrants from the Third World, America should seek out people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister Erna Solberg he met Wednesday at the White House

ON THE RECEIVING END: Dick Durbin (right) was part of a bipartisan group of six senators who went to the Oval Office to seek Trump’s approval for a deal which would have exchanged ending the visa lottery for resuming ‘temporary protected status’ for some arrivals from some countries
U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said ‘racist’ was the only world that could be used to describe Trump’s comments
He added: ‘You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘s***holes’, whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.’
Trump also said that instead of accepting Africans and Haitians, the U.S. should seek to assimilate people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met with a day earlier.
Unlike Haiti and all the nations of Africa, Norway is both a NATO member and a stalwart U.S. ally.
CNN reported that the outburst came at the private Oval Office meeting as Democratic senator Dick Durbin outlined a bipartisan immigration deal put together by six senators which they took to Trump for backing.
Dick Durbin, the Democratic senator who is minority whip, was outlining his proposal in which the visa lottery system, of which Trump has been a fierce critic, would be ended in return for ‘temporary protected status’, known as TPS, resuming for El Salvador and Haiti.
Trump has moved to end it for immigrants from those countries but as Durbin went through a list of countries which would gain TPS under the deal, he reached Haiti and ‘Trump asked why the US wants more people from Haiti and African countries’, CNN reported.
Haiti’s government came out late Thursday and said they ‘vehemently condemn’ Trump’s comments in relation to their country.
The country’s ambassador to the US told NBC that Trump’s remarks were ‘based on stereotypes’ and the president was either ‘misinformed’ or ‘miseducated.’
The White House issued a needle-threading statement on immigration policy Thursday afternoon, while not denying the story’s accuracy.
‘Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,’ deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in the statement. ‘The President will only accept an immigration deal that adequately addresses the visa lottery system and chain migration – two programs that hurt our economy and allow terrorists into our country.’

Wreckage from natural disasters is endemic in nations like Haiti (pictured) and El Salvador, while African refugees from nations like Rwanda and Sudan flee oppressive governments and long-lasting civil wars between warring tribes and sects

TROUBLED: Members of the MS-13 gang, notorious for its brutality, detained in San Salvador, one of the many troubles the country is suffering from
‘Like other nations that have merit-based immigration, President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation,’ Shah added.
‘He will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway.’
Policy squabbles notwithstanding, Trump’s comments shocked senators from both major parties, according to the Post.
Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois was in the Oval Office to argue that the Trump administration should scale back a proposal to eliminate a diversity visa lottery, which seeks to import people from places that would otherwise be ‘underrepresented’ among immigrants in the U.S.
Trump’s comment about ‘s***hole countries’ comes at a time when his White House is ending protections for people who sought shelter following natural disasters years, or sometimes decades, ago.
There are approximately 436,900 people with such ‘Temporary Protected Status’ living in the U.S. from 10 countries – South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria, Haiti, Nepal and Yemen.
Haitians and Nicaraguans have already been told their protection is ending.
The Trump administration said this week that it was also removing the protection for Salvadoran nationals who have been allowed to reside in the U.S. since a pair of earthquakes struck their country in 2001.
The Haitians were fleeing an equally devastating 2010 earthquake.
The astonishing comments came on an afternoon of chaos as Huckabee Sanders dismissed senators’ claims they had a bipartisan deal on ‘Dreamers.’
Six senators boasted they had a deal in place that would solve the issue of what to do with hundreds of thousands of people brought to the U.S. illegally as children and whose legal status granted under the Obama administration is about to expire.
When Huckabee Sanders was asked about the deal at the White House press briefing she told reporters, ‘There has not been a deal reached yet.’
But minutes after the briefing, Sens. Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, and Cory Gardner, Republican from Colorado, tweeted a statement saying there was indeed a deal.
‘Several of my colleagues and I have reached an agreement that reflects the discussion we had this week with @realDonaldTrump on a solution for Dreamers and border security,’ Gardner wrote, sharing a statement that was co-signed by five of his colleagues.
The group of senators working together included Gardner and Durbin, along with Republicans Sens. Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham, as well as Democrats Michael Bennet and Bob Menendez.
‘We have been working for four months and have reached an agreement in principle that addresses border security, the diversity visa lottery, chain migration/family reunification, and the Dream Act – the areas outlined by the President. We are now working to build support for that deal in Congress,’ the statement said.
However, a spokeswoman for President Trump told DailyMail.com that what Huckabee Sanders said from the podium stands
At the briefing, Huckabee Sanders warned that the Democrats best not play politics over immigration and risk a government shutdown.
‘Democrats should stop making our brave troops and essential government functions political pawns in their swamp games,’ she said. ‘They should stop their obstruction and work with Republicans to fund the government.’
She also told reporters that she believed a deal would get done.
‘We are confident and we feel we’re going to get there,’ the press secretary said as she exited the podium for the day.
The White House meeting was also attended by Republicans including Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue, along with Reps. Bob Goodlatte and Kevin McCarthy, according to Sen. John Cornyn.
Cornyn indicated to CNN that the gang of six’s proposal wouldn’t be enough to get an immigration bill over the finish line.
‘I think the message has now been delivered that we need to get everybody at the table and we’ll take the best of their ideas,’ Cornyn said.
Goodlatte, who serves as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, unveiled an immigration bill Wednesday afternoon that would also deal with DACA or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the name of the policy that gave Dreamers legal status.
Huckabee Sanders was asked by a reporter about that plan too, questioning whether it would act as a ‘poison pill’ for being too conservative.
She said no.
‘I think that’s why it’s called a negotiation,’ the press secretary replied.
‘Everybody puts everything on the table they want. You figure out what you’re not willing to give up, which we’ve laid out. And you try to come out with everybody winning and that’s what we’re hoping to do,’ she said.