Donald Trump has suggested the congresswomen who were targets of a series of racist tweets he posted should apologise to “the Office of the President”.
The president prompted widespread outrage on Sunday when he said in a tweet that Democrat congresswomen from countries “whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe” should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came”.
Having earlier complained about the response to his post, he launched a renewed attack on a group he described as “Radical Left Congresswomen”, widely assumed to refer to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley.
Shortly before 7am in Washington DC, Mr Trump tweeted: “When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize 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. So many people are angry at them & their horrible & disgusting actions!”
He followed it up 48 minutes later by adding: “If Democrats want to unite around the foul language & racist hatred spewed from the mouths and actions of these very unpopular & unrepresentative Congresswomen, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I can tell you that they have made Israel feel abandoned by the US.”
It came after he was again accused of racism by the group of four congresswomen known as “the squad”. Three of them were born and raised in the US, while Ms Omar was born in Somalia and moved to the country as a child.
Ms Omar called Mr Trump “the most corrupt and inept president we have ever seen” while Ms Ocasio-Cortez said he had “showed off his white nationalism for the world to see”. Ms Pressley said: “THIS is what racism looks like. WE are what democracy looks like. And we’re not going anywhere”.
Ms Tlaib, who described Mr Trump as a ”bully” and “this racist President”, suggested he was attempting to distract the public from the administration’s treatment of immigrants to the US.
“He intentionally distracting us from the fact that ICE is knocking on doors without warrants right now,” she tweeted. “He is distracting us from the fact that colleagues are at the border reporting on the horrific and inhumane conditions.”
The president’s mention of Israel referred back to a previous attack on Muslim congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, when he accused her of having “tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people” after she discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and criticised Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a podcast.
Mr Trump’s remarks have been condemned by Democrat politicians across the US, while only one Republican, Chip Roy, offered any disapproval. British prime minister Theresa May also said they were “completely unacceptable”.
