Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Lee Zeldin Defends Trump’s ‘Shithole’ Comment

Only few Republicans chose to stand up for President Trump after news broke of his derogatory comment, referring to immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and Africa as coming from “shithole” countries.

Among those speaking out in Trump’s defense was New York Republican Lee Zeldin, one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress.

“Pres @realDonaldTrump wasn’t elected for his ability or willingness to be politically correct,” Zeldin tweeted. “The fact is that there are many nations in the world struggling mightily… politically & economically, w poor infrastructure, schools, physical security & more.”

Zeldin explained in another tweet while these “third world nations have some of the worst possible challenges imaginable, they also have certain aspects of culture, tradition, values, & religion, that can be emulated the world over.”

The New York Republican concluded his thread by saying that he is “not here to call for the President’s mouth to be washed out w soap & then for him to be physically removed from office. He’s not perfect, but no President has ever been perfect. I’m still very strongly rooting for his success & America’s success in this great new year.”

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.