Could that be a swastika tattoo? Maybe. Maybe not.

Background facts.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants a global but merit based immigration system, cutting out not only criminals but the unskilled, untalented, and uneducated, admitting only people capable at least of supporting themselves but by preference of making significant contributions to our culture, economy, and society.

A random Norwegian is far more likely to satisfy those criteria than a random Haitian, Nigerian, or other person from a chronically impoverished country more or less permanently wavering on the edge of being a failed state.

Come to that, more likely than a random Guatemalan, Mexican, or Brazilian.

So immigration law or policy so conceived would very likely have a significantly disparate impact, as regards admission to the US, on persons and communities of different races (Haitians versus Norwegians), and perhaps even ethnicities as defined by blood within races (Serbs versus Scots).

A bug or a feature?

One for Ann Coulter, the Klan, and a lot of white people including, no doubt, some Democrats, but quite the other for Dick Durbin, The New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, and the Congressional Black Caucus.

And if that remark about disparate impact suggests the possibility of an eventual legal challenge from the latter group to you, I think you may be onto something.

And now for the flap.

Trump Alarms Lawmakers With Disparaging Words for Haiti and Africa

President Trump on Thursday balked at an immigration deal that would include protections for people from Haiti and some nations in Africa, demanding to know at a White House meeting why he should accept immigrants from “shithole countries” rather than from places like Norway, according to people with direct knowledge of the conversation.

Mr. Trump’s remarks, the latest example of his penchant for racially tinged remarks denigrating immigrants, left members of Congress from both parties attending the meeting in the Cabinet Room alarmed and mystified. 

He made them during a discussion of an emerging bipartisan deal to give legal status to immigrants illegally brought to the United States as children, those with knowledge of the conversation said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the meeting.

When Mr. Trump heard that Haitians were among those who would benefit from the proposed deal, he asked whether they could be left out of the plan, asking, “Why do we want people from Haiti here?”

. . . .

The episode at the White House, first reported by The Washington Post, unfolded as Mr. Trump was hosting a meeting with Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who are working to codify the protections in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, the Obama-era initiative that provided temporary work permits and reprieves from deportation to immigrants brought to the United States as children by their parents.

Also present were Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the majority leader; Senator David Perdue, Republican of Georgia; Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas; and Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

None of the lawmakers would comment on Mr. Trump’s remarks.

Senator Insists Trump Used ‘Vile and Racist’ Language

President Trump on Friday offered a vague denial about the language he chose to use about immigrants during a private meeting with lawmakers at the White House on Thursday, when he reportedly referred to African nations as “shithole countries.”

But Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said on Friday that the president did use the term “shithole,” repeatedly, during the course of the meeting on immigration — which Mr. Durbin attended. 

The senator described Mr. Trump as saying “things which were hate-filled, vile and racist.”

. . . .

In a discussion about immigration from African nations, Mr. Trump asked why he would want “all these people from shithole countries,” according to people with direct knowledge of the conversation. 

Mr. Trump also said the United States should admit more people from places like Norway, an overwhelmingly white country.

“Why do we need more Haitians?” Mr. Trump said, according to several news accounts, including The Washington Post. “Take them out.”

The White House has not denied his use of racially charged rhetoric.

Still, this Durbin remark about the history of the White House is an absolute howler.

“I cannot believe that, in the history of the White House in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday,” Mr. Durbin said on Friday.

Maybe not those exact words, but surely far worse have been said in that room, and by its principle occupants, too.

And while Trump's remarks admit of being interpreted as racist they are not, so to speak, facially racist.

But what adult in the least familiar with American history can doubt that past occupants of the Oval Office have made and laughed at the most egregiously racist remarks imaginable?

Even Lincoln, who fought a war to release black Americans from bondage, did not think they were up to it, and urged that belief in that office, at least briefly thinking they should all be sent back to Africa.