Don't fall for this trap - it was PEOPLE from shithole countries

Trump's comment wasn't directly about "countries", it was about "people".

In the noun phrase "people from shithole countries", the primary noun is "people". The "from shithole countries" is simply a modifying phrase. As offensive a modifier as that may have been on a standalone basis, it was used to describe PEOPLE.

There are those attempting to explain it away along the lines of "Oh, come on, conditions are bad in Haiti, and one might refer to it as a 'shithole'" miss the point. Have you ever referred to someplace as a "shithole"? Well, it's a recognizable term. SNL once used it during a parody of Joe Biden's somewhat repetitive use of the "tough times in Scranton growing up" stories.

Of course, the president of the US should not denigrate any country (or at least one with which we are not at war).

But this is not some casual reference to general conditions somewhere. This was a statement about PEOPLE.

The larger phrase is about PEOPLE, and the apparent suggestion that the national origin of a person is some sort of measure of worth or value of that person.

The context was not a discussion of "Hey, Donald do you want to go live in Haiti?" The context was a discussion about people seeking to live in the United States.