Haiti and Dominican Republic have organized a bodybuilding competition to generate support for the sport on July 23. It was the first such showdown between the neighboring countries whose relations are often tense.
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
Sunday's event was organized by the Dominican bodybuilding federation and a Haitian bodybuilding group to generate support for the sport and make it more accessible in Haiti, where a handful of bodybuilders struggle to become professionals in a country where people make less than $2 a day.
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AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
The only female competitor.(AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
A Haitian bodybuilder peers from behind the curtain to watch his competitors.(AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
More than two dozen men and one woman competed in Sunday's Haiti Bodybuilding Classic. Haitian bodybuilder Spely Laventure won the semi-heavy weight category, as well as first for overall show.
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
The only female competitor.(AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
Laventure said he hopes it will lead to sponsors and more exposure. He also said: "I proved everyone that I'm really a champion".
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
Haitian bodybuilder Pierrive Lindon performs during the competition. Tony Pena, president of the Dominican Republic's Bodybuilding Federation, urged Haiti's government to support their local bodybuilders. "Haitians have very good genetics to be world-class champions," he said. "They just need support."
AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery
A Haitian bodybuilder peers from behind the curtain to watch his competitors.(AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
-AP
President Donald Trump admitted Tuesday that he used the slur “shithole countries” to disparage Haiti and African nations during a 2018 meeting with lawmakers, bragging about a comment that sparked global outrage during his first term.
Back then, Trump had denied making the contemptuous statement during a closed-door meeting, but on Tuesday, he showed little compunction reliving it during a rally in Pennsylvania. He went on to further disparage Somalia as “filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”
Trump was boasting in his speech that he had last week “announced a permanent pause on Third World migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and many other countries,” when someone in the crowd yelled out the 2018 remark.
That prompted him to recall the 2018 incident. His telling hewed closely to the description offered at the time by people who were briefed on the Oval Office meeting.
“We had a meeting and I said, ‘Why is it we only take people from shithole countries,’ right? ‘Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden?’” Trump told rallygoers.
“But we always take people from Somalia,” he continued. “Places that are a disaster. Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”
The White House at the time did not deny Trump's remarks, but the president posted on Twitter the day after the news broke that “this was not the language I used.” He added that he “never said anything derogatory about Haitians."
Back in 2018, Trump's comments denigrating predominantly Black nations while seeking more migration from predominantly white countries were widely denounced as racist. Some congressional Republicans condemned the comments, and foreign leaders were outraged. Botswana’s government summoned the U.S. ambassador, and Senegal’s President Macky Sall said he was shocked, noting, “Africa and the Black race merit the respect and consideration of all.”
But since then, Trump has pushed past many norms and traditions of decorum that had guided his predecessors, both in his first term and in the years since. He often peppers his public remarks with curse words, and this year has dropped the F-bomb as cameras were rolling — on two separate occasions.
On Thanksgiving, in a pair of lengthy posts on social media complaining about immigrants, he demeaned Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, using a dated slur for intellectually disabled people. Asked by a reporter if he stood by a comment that many Americans find offensive, Trump was unrepentant. “Yeah. I think there’s something wrong with him,” he said.
President Donald Trump reaches out to a supporter after speaking at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
President Donald Trump speaks at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
