Eric Trump attempted to defend Donald Trump against accusations of racism on Wednesday, 18 January, saying his father cannot be a racist because he only "sees one colour: green." President Trump sparked massive outrage and backlash in recent days after he reportedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as "shithole countries" during a meeting on immigration with bipartisan lawmakers.

Trump apparently questioned why the US should take in immigrants from those countries and said "we should have more people from Norway."

Trump's comments were immediately denounced as racist and xenophobic by lawmakers in the US and global leaders. Many critics argued that his history of racist behaviour, statements and policies were exemplified by his latest alleged vulgar remark.

The president has since pushed back against the accusations saying he is "not a racist", noting that while he did use "tough language" during the DACA meeting "this was not the language used."

The White House has dismissed the claims of racism with White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying if he were "why did NBC give him a show for a decade on TV?" Sanders was referring to his reality TV show The Apprentice.

Trump's second son Eric also jumped to his father's defence during an interview with Fox & Friends saying the president "does not see race."

"My father sees one color: green," Eric Trump said, referring to the colour of money. "That's all he cares about. He cares about the economy. He does not see race. He's the least racist person I have ever met in my entire life. It's total nonsense."

He further claimed that African-American unemployment is the lowest it has ever been in the nation's history saying "they won't give him any credit for that".

"They'll go out and call him racist. It's very sad, it's a race to the bottom," he said, likely referring to Democrats and the media. "They stoop very, very low. The reason they do that is they don't have their own message."

The internet, on the other hand, was left baffled by Trump's "bizarre" rationale and defence of his father.

"What a sad statement," one Twitter user said.

"That's a special kind of dumb and inappropriate," one person chimed.

eric trump
President Trump's second son Eric tried to defend his dad's against accusations of racism but it didn't go down too well on Twitter Ethan Miller/Getty Images