--- description: The White House legislative director reiterated the denial Sunday, but said he was not at the meeting where the comments reportedly occurred title: White House Denies Trump's Alleged Remarks About Haitian, Nigerian Immigrants image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt763f464d3a0a01ef/6988f6307cdbac848cd5b62d/donald-trump-impeachment-process-timeline.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [White House](/tag/white-house/) ## White House Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # White House Denies President Trump's Alleged Remarks About Haitian, Nigerian Immigrants  by [Alana Abramson](/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 24, 2017 3:18 PM CUT  President Donald Trump speaks during a national security strategy speech at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 18, 2017 President Donald Trump speaks during a national security strategy speech at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 18, 2017Jim Lo Scalzo—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 24, 2017 3:18 PM CUT The White House continued to push back Sunday against a [recent New York _Times_ report](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/23/us/politics/trump-immigration.html "undefined") that detailed offensive comments President Donald Trump allegedly made about immigrants from Nigeria and Haiti, with the legislative director disputing the remarks had ever been made. “The people in the meeting say those comments never happened, so I have no belief that that actually transpired,” White House Legislative Director Marc Short said on _Fox News Sunday._ Short said that he himself was not in the meeting where the comments reportedly occurred, but had no reason to doubt the accounts of those who were denying the comments. The _Times_ reported on Saturday that in June, the President, expressing his dissatisfaction with the number of immigrants who had entered the country since January, said that the 15,000 people who had come from Haiti ““all have AIDS,” and that the 40,000 who had come from Nigeria would never “go back to their huts” in Africa once they saw the United States. The _Times_ report cited six officials who had attended or were briefed on the meeting. Two officials who had attended the meeting or had been briefed were cited regarding these specific comments. The officials were not identified in the _Times_ report. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied the comments on Saturday. “General Kelly, General McMaster, Secretary Tillerson, Secretary Nielsen and all other senior staff actually in the meeting deny these outrageous claims,” she told the _Times. “_It’s both sad and telling The New York _Times_ would print the lies of their anonymous ‘sources’ anyway.” The Trump administration announced in November it was [ending](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/us/haitians-temporary-status.html "undefined") temporary protected status for Haitians, which enabled over 50,000 to live and work in the country legally. If they do not leave by July 2019, they will face the prospect of deportation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5078765/white-house-donald-trump-haiti-nigeria/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5078765/white-house-donald-trump-haiti-nigeria/"},"headline":"White House Denies President Trump's Alleged Remarks About Haitian, Nigerian Immigrants","datePublished":"2017-12-24T15:18:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:40:39.337Z","description":"President Trump reportedly said Haitian immigrants \"all have AIDS\"","url":"https://time.com/5078765/white-house-donald-trump-haiti-nigeria/","keywords":["White House","Immigration","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt763f464d3a0a01ef/6988f6307cdbac848cd5b62d/donald-trump-impeachment-process-timeline.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt763f464d3a0a01ef/6988f6307cdbac848cd5b62d/donald-trump-impeachment-process-timeline.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Delivers Remarks On The National Security Strategy","caption":"President Trump Delivers Remarks On The National Security Strategy","creditText":"Jim Lo Scalzo—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5078765/white-house-donald-trump-haiti-nigeria/","name":"White House Denies President Trump's Alleged Remarks About Haitian, Nigerian Immigrants"}}]}] ```