May condemns unrepentant Trump over ‘go back’ comments

THERESA MAY issued a parting shot at Donald Trump as she prepared to leave office, calling the US president’s racist comments about a group of Democrat congresswomen “completely unacceptable”.

It came as Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat speaker, said she would introduce a resolution in Congress, censuring Mr Trump for “xenophobic tweets”.

Mr Trump strenuously defended his remarks, accusing the minority ethnic congresswomen of “hating our country”, probably being communists, and suggesting they should leave the US.

The row began on Sunday when Mr Trump wrote on Twitter that the congresswomen should “go back” to where they came from.

Mrs May’s spokesman said: “Her view is that the language used to refer to these women was completely unacceptable.”

Mr Trump and Mrs May, who leaves office in just over a week, have had a roller-coaster relationship. Earlier this month, they publicly fell out over the resignation of Sir Kim Darroch, the UK’S ambassador to Washington, after his diplomatic cables were leaked.

The two leaders are not expected to speak again before Mrs May leaves.

In recent days, Mr Trump has targeted four high-profile, liberal, female Democrats, known as “the squad”, who have been critical of his immigration policies. They are Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

All are US citizens and only one, Ms Omar, was born outside the US. She was born in Somalia and became a US citizen in her teens.

Speaking at the White House yesterday, Mr Trump said many people had “loved” his posts telling them to leave the US. He said: “These are people that hate our country. They hate it, I think, with a passion. I hear the anti-semitic language, the hatred they have for Israel, the love they have for our enemies. If they’re not happy here, they can leave. I’m sure there will be many people that won’t miss them.”

He added: “As to whether or not they’re communists, I would think they might be. This isn’t what our country is about. If the Democrats want to gear their wagons around these four people, they’re going to have a very tough election.”

The president claimed that Ms Omar, the first black Muslim woman in Congress, “hates Jews” and “puffs her chest out” when she talks about al-qaeda.

Kamala Harris, a Democrat 2020 presidential candidate, said Mr Trump’s remarks were “absolutely racist and un-american”.

But there was little criticism from Republicans. Backing the president, Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator, said: “We all know this crowd are a bunch of communists and they hate Israel, they hate our own country.”