From the moment he launched his candidacy by attacking Mexican immigrants as criminals, President Donald Trump has returned time and again to language that is racially charged and, to many, insensitive and highly offensive.
Whether it is a calculated strategy to appeal to less tolerant and broad-minded supporters or simply a filter-free chief executive saying what's on his mind, the cycle is by now familiar: The president speaks, critics respond with outrage, and Trump's defenders accuse his critics of hysterically overreacting.
The latest instance came Thursday, during a White House meeting with congressional lawmakers on immigration. Trump asked why the United States would accept immigrants from "shithole countries" in Africa and the Caribbean, rather than people from places like Norway, according to two people briefed on the meeting.
A glimpse at some of the president's earlier provocations:
