O'Donnell's piece was titled Deal With The Devil.

US NEWS PRESENTER Lawrence O’Donnell says that Donald Trump would have called famine-era Ireland a “shithole” in a piece calling Trump “the devil”.

Responding on his MSNBC programme about reports Trump had referred to Africa and Haiti as “shitholes”, O’Donnell spoke passionately.

My people came from what Donald Trump would call a shithole country. No running water, no plumbing, no toilets. Rampant poverty, disease and famine.

“That was the Ireland my ancestors left to come here just so that they could eat.

That was back when Trump’s family name was still Drumpf and they lived in what Donald Trump would call a shithole country. Donald Trump doesn’t know what he comes from, but he knows just enough about it.

“He knew he needed to lie about it. His father used to lie and say they were from Swedish ancestry after World War II made them a bit uncomfortable with their German ancestry.

Donald Trump knows nothing of where we all came from and he is a man consumed by hatreds and we can see him consumed by hatreds every day.

O’Donnell went on to say that he didn’t believe the US President could name more than two African countries and pointed out that parts of some African countries contain massive wealth and high standards of living.

He added that “nobody who was paying attention to Trump” could be surprised by the comment.

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The UN has called Trump’s comment, made while discussing immigration with congressmen and senators, “racist”.

According to three people who were briefed on the conversation, Trump questioned why the US would accept more immigrants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa rather than places like Norway, as he rejected a bipartisan immigration deal.

O’Donnell, a Boston-born descendant of Irish immigrants, has previously described Irish-Americans who work for Trump as “disgracing their heritage”.