Translating Trump: a ‘dirty’ job but someone has to do it

But spare a thought for the non-English language media outlets that had to translate the colourful epithet into local languages.

The famously polite Japanese media tied themselves in knots trying not to offend their readers, with national broadcaster NHK sticking to “filthy countries”.

The BBC’s Japanese-language service used a phrase for a tank that holds excrement, which is often used as manure.

Japanese Newswire Jiji Press translated it as “countries like toilets”, using a colloquial but not necessarily vulgar term.