World React as Trump Use Vulgar Language to Describe Haiti and African Nations

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Reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump's reported "s---hole countries" remark has been swift.

Trump stunned lawmakers in a White House meeting on immigration Thursday when he reportedly referred to Haiti and African nations as "s---hole countries."

"Why are we having all these people from s---hole countries come here," the president asked, as was first reported by media including The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN. The crude term means dirty and impoverished.

Trump said the United States should let in more people from places such as Norway, whose prime minister met with him in the White House Wednesday.

In a tweet Friday morning, Trump seemed to suggest he didn't use the words attributed to him:

The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018
The African Union said it is "frankly alarmed" by the president's statement. AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo told the Associated Press, "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice. "She said, "This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity."

The African National Congress, South Africa's ruling party, said Trump's remarks are "extremely offensive."

The Daily Maverick, a South African media outlet said, "Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches at this rate," in a reference to the hoods that the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacy group, wears and the torches that the alt right movement uses at its demonstrations.

Haiti has reportedly summoned a U.S. official to explain the president's remarks.

Trump's comments prompted former FBI director James Comey to take to Twitter to cite the greeting on the Statue of Liberty, the beacon in the New York City harbor that welcomed immigrants to the U.S. for decades.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door," Comey wrote. "This country's greatness and true genius lies in its diversity."

Trump dismissed Comey last year as the FBI director over the agency's probe into Trump's campaign's links to Russia.

Author Stephen King weighed in on Twitter to say, "Why would people from Norway want to immigrate here?They have actual health care and longer life expectancy."

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said on Twitter "your mouth is the foulest s---hole in the world...America's greatness is built on diversity or have your forgotten your immigrant background, Donald?"