From “Shithole Countries” to “Merit-Based Immigration:” Racial Coding in Trump-Era Immigration Policy Rhetoric

This article examines how “merit-based” immigration rhetoric functions as racial code in contemporary U.S. policy discourse, focusing on Trump-era immigration policy from 2017 through early 2026. Drawing on racial formation theory, critical discourse analysis, and translative rhetoric, the study develops the concept of rhetorical whitewashing, defined as the strategic use of facially neutral language to disguise racial targeting and make discriminatory policies politically defensible. Through rhetorical analysis of presidential statements, administrative proclamations, and policy implementation patterns across three domains, the travel ban proclamations, the RAISE Act, and visa processing suspensions, the article identifies five interconnected mechanisms constituting rhetorical whitewashing: criterion displacement, selective implementation, justification-implementation gaps, euphemistic cycling, and racial common-sense activation. The analysis reveals that ostensibly race-neutral “merit” language systematically disadvantages immigrants from predominantly Black, Brown, and Muslim-majority nations while privileging those from majority-white countries. Trump’s December 2025 confirmation of his “shithole countries” comment demonstrates that norms constraining explicit racism depend on political contestation rather than inevitable progress. The rhetorical whitewashing framework provides communication scholars with analytical tools for examining how racial projects operate through facially neutral language, contributing to scholarship on color-blind racism, presidential rhetoric, and the communicative perpetuation of racial hierarchies.