It's fair enough to call a country a shithole if it's poor. We are sort of one, in a different way. (not so much about class)
If you can call Mississippi a shithole, you can call many third world nations shitholes.

A shithole leader cough cough

Everything legal if you've got money

It elects this piece of shit: https://i.imgur.com/4vz2qjr.jpg

things like poverty and crumbling infrastructure would qualify, but I think things like that will always come back to a failure of leadership at the root of it all - it's not always under their control because of imperialism and colonialism, the 'west' will happily install a warlord who will plunder a nation with no regard for the lives of its citizens...people will scoff, but America is headed down the same path, poverty, crumbling infrastructure, psychotic leaders who only care about their own money and power

Making it hard for people to make ends meet. Depriving the citizens of their basic human rights. Jailing, torturing, and killing whoever that disagrees with the situation.

A country where you literally shit in a hole. =P

A dictatorship with a crippled economy. Education, healthcare and food are not subject to regulatory standards to make them affordable available and safe for everyone.

suppressing the citizens' first amendment rights to free speech ❤️