Trump renews attack on liberal congresswomen
President Donald Trump lashed out again on Monday at progressive Democratic congresswomen he attacked at the weekend in tweets that were dismissed as racist.
“When will the radical left congresswomen apologise to our country, the people of Israel and even to the office of the president, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“So many people are angry at them and their horrible and disgusting actions,” Trump said.
In his initial attack on Sunday, Trump said congresswomen he did not name came from corrupt, poorly managed countries to which they should return. Democratic presidential candidates and senior legislators branded the comments racist and xenophobic.
Trump in 2018 reportedly referred to countries in Africa as “s***hole” nations, and has often described the influx of USbound migrants as an “invasion”. He was also a leading proponent of the “birther” conspiracy theory that his predecessor Barack Obama was not born on US soil and therefore could not legally be president.
On Sunday Trump referred to “‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen” on Twitter in remarks that appeared to be aimed at a group of young, outspoken, liberal women of colour, all first-time members of the House of Representatives.
These include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
They “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world”, Trump tweeted. He accused the women of “viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful nation on earth, how our government is to be run”.
“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done,” Trump wrote.
The president did not identify the targets of his comments by name. But in a tweet later in the day, he said they “hate Israel with a true and unbridled passion”, indicating that he may have been referring to Omar and Tlaib, who have recently been embroiled in controversies related to the Jewish state.
All but one of the four women were born in the US. Omar fled war-torn Somalia as a child and came to the US as a refugee.