The Hill reports:
A conservative columnist said President Trump called friends to brag after the meeting in which the president reportedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “shithole countries.” Citing a person who spoke with the president, The Associated Press reported that Trump doubled down on his reported comments from this week, defending the remark as not racist but a “straightforward assessment” of the living conditions in the countries discussed.
It’s weird that people in the room don’t remember Trump using that word when Trump himself was calling friends to brag about it afterwards. I spoke to one of those friends. The President thought it would play well with the base.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) January 14, 2018