Eight years on, President Donald Trump has finally acknowledged using the term "s***holes," to describe African and Caribbean nations, and he's defending his remarks.

Back in 2018, during Trump's initial presidency, the then-president made these controversial comments in a private meeting discussing immigration from predominantly African countries. The closed-door session included 12 politicians who were deliberating Republican Lindsey Graham's cross-party proposal to eliminate deportation threats for 689,800 individuals who had been brought to America illegally as children under Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, commonly known as DACA, which Trump subsequently dismantled.

Senator Dick Durbin, who was the sole Democrat present, disclosed at the time that Trump had employed offensive language when referring to African nations. Durbin quoted the president as declaring: "'Those s***holes send us the people that they don't want.'" He emphasised: "He repeated that. He didn't say that just one time." Durbin also reported Trump as stating: "'We don't need more Haitians.'"

At the time Trump was forced to deny allegations the remarks amounted to racism. He said he was the "least racist person you have ever interviewed" as he hit back against criticism.

That was until now.

While speaking at a rally in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania last week, Trump doubled down.

In what was supposed to be a speech about the economy, Trump shouted to the captive audience, "I've also announced a permanent pause on Third World migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, and many other countries."

That's when someone in the audience corrected him, yelling, "S***hole."

To which Trump responded, "I didn't say s***hole, you did."

This was met with a roar of laughter.

He continued, "Remember, I said that to the senators. They came in, the Democrats. They wanted to be bipartisan. So, they came in, and they said this is totally off the record."

He explained, "We wanted to be honest, because our country was going to hell, and we had a meeting, and I said, why is it we only take people from s***hole countries," right?"

Then he again doubled down, asking, "Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden - just a few - let us have a few, from Denmark. Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people, do you mind? But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime." Trump consistently denied Senator Durbin's allegations at the time, insisting that his language in the meeting was "tough," but "this was not the language used," and he maintained that he "never said anything derogatory about Haitians."

Factcheck.org sought a response from White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson. Despite Trump's own on-stage admission, Jackson retorted, "Instead of digging up another Fake News narrative peddled by Democrats almost 10 years ago, the media should focus on the substance of what President Trump correctly pointed out: Aliens who come to our country, complain about how much they hate America, fail to contribute to our economy, and refuse to assimilate into our society should not be here."

In the same rally last week, while discussing inflation and the rising cost of living in the United States, Trump declared, "The word 'affordability' is a con job by the Democrats."