Haitians protest Trump outside Trump Tower

Hundreds of Haitian-Americans and Haitians living in New York City on Friday night protested President Trump’s reported comments referring to the country as a “shithole.”

The New York Daily News reports that hundreds of demonstrators descended on Trump Tower waving Haitian flags, beating drums and blowing horns while chanting slogans at the president.

{mosads}Trump was not in New York City at the time.

“We have a president in power who knows no history and seems to have no education, who just disrespects any and everybody in the world,” one Haitian-born social worker who lives in Brooklyn told the newspaper.

Trump last week caused international outrage and bipartisan fury on Capitol Hill when he reportedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador and a number of African nations as “shithole countries” during a meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform, and followed it up by questioning why the U.S. doesn’t admit more immigrants from Norway.

The comments drew bipartisan criticism. Earlier this week, the president met with the House’s lone Haitian-American lawmaker, Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), at the White House.

“I can’t defend the indefensible. You have to understand that there are countries that struggle out there. But their people, their people are good people and they’re part of us. We’re Americans,” Love told CNN last Sunday.

The president was also met with protesters in Florida on Monday when a few hundred people carried out a similar demonstration in front of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

“I had to come out because of the president’s incredibly racist, bigoted and depressing remarks,” one protester said Monday. “This is just setting our country backward. This is not who we are. It’s not what our founding fathers intended.”

Trump denied making the remarks in a pair of tweets last Friday.

“Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said ‘take them out.’ Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians,” the president tweeted.