President Donald Trump’s reported labelling of Haiti and the entire continent of Africa as “shithole countries” has prompted a major backlash on Yelp, where reviewers have been taking revenge by using the term to describe Trump hotels.
As noted by CNN, the Washington, D.C.-sited Trump International Hotel had four out of five stars before the now-denied comments were made public, but now has just two. Hundreds of people submitted one-star reviews that repeatedly called the facility a “shithole,” along with other colorful terms.
“Ugly and tacky, ruined my country through bribery and foreign emoluments. Total shithole. Would not repeat,” read one typical review. A similar fate has befallen other Trump hotels, along with the president’s “Winter White House” in Florida, Mar-a-Lago.
The offending phrase was apparently uttered during a behind-closed-doors meeting on immigration reform. Trump’s reported choice of terminology to describe majority-black countries—while suggesting that more immigrants should come to the U.S. from the very-white Norway—sparked international outrage.
The United Nations called him a racist, Botswana demanded to know if it qualified as a shithole, and the South African and Ghanaian governments hauled in their respective U.S. ambassadors for an explanation.
There has been a corporate backlash, too. Airbnb said it would spend at least $100,000 on ads promoting the countries denigrated by the president.
However, while the White House initially did not deny Trump made the comment, he subsequently claimed the reports were false.
If it makes any difference—which it may not—the Washington Post earlier this week reported unnamed White House insiders as saying Trump in fact said “shithouse” rather than “shithole.”
