Todays Cover of El Salvadors El Mundo.
Today's Cover of El Salvador's El Mundo. www.elmundo.es

As expected, the day after the Washington Post reported that Trump called El Salvador, Haiti, and African countries shitholes during a meeting on immigration, and this report caused a shitstorm on the internet and cable news, he tweeted that he did use tough language but not that kind of tough language. So far, the only Democrat in the meeting, Sen Dick Durbin, has publicly stated that Trump is flat-out lying.

Business Insider:

President Donald Trump used "shithole" to describe Haiti and African countries "not just once, but repeatedly" during a discussion on immigration with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House on Thursday, a Democratic senator who was there told reporters on Friday.

Everyone in the room heard him repeatedly use that word to describe black and Hispanic countries. But why are the others not doing anything today about Trump's lying? Because they are members of his party. And now it all makes sense. They were the target of the "vile and racist" language. They were ambushed.

Trump did not just call the countries shitholes. He also, according to CNN, "spent his Thursday night phoning aides, allies and friends, asking them how they thought the 'shithole' remark was playing out in the press." A White House official went as far as to call this his "victory lap." But a victory over whom? Blacks? Latinos? A victory for white supremacy? Why was he so pleased to say things that obviously hurt his party's brand? And why is he lying when everyone knows without a doubt he called Haiti and other black nations—such as the one I come from, Zimbabwe—shitholes? Because he knew the GOP's inevitable silence about the lying and inaction on the "unfortunate, unhelpful" remarks—remarks, by the way, that no CEO in the US could make without being summarily fired—would only increase his control of the GOP. The Grand Old Party has become Trump's Own Party.

Trump's already historically low approval ratings will certainly be hit hard by this incident, but it will consolidate his ownership of one of the two major parties in American politics. That's a pretty good deal.