Trump tells Dem congresswomen to ‘go back’ to ‘fix’ countries they came from

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Sunday weighed in on the friction between a group of four freshman Democratic congresswomen and Speaker Nancy Pelosi: He suggested that the congresswomen — none of whom are white — should “go back and help fix” the countries they came from. His message was immediately seized upon by Democrats, who called it a racist trope.
“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” Trump posted on Twitter.
He added: “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’s attack was meant for members of the so-called squad, a group engaged in an existential and generational war of words with Pelosi: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
“These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough,” Trump said. “I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”
Only one of the women, Omar, who is from Somalia, was born outside the US. Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx to parents of Puerto Rican descent. Pressley, who is black, was born in Cincinnati and raised in Chicago. And Tlaib was born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrants.
Trump’s attack came after days of Fox News coverage that centred on Omar. During her tenure in Congress, Omar has rattled fellow Democrats and provided ammunition to Republicans for her repeated criticisms of Israel.
And she has been vocal about her life as a refugee who fled her native country and eventually settled in US, only to be disappointed with the country she found. More than any of the others in her freshman group, Omar — one of the first two Muslim women in Congress along with Tlaib — has used her personal story to make the argument that loving America does not require an acceptance of its shortcomings.
Several Democrat leaders chided Trump for what they called a racially motivated message. Pelosi condemned Trump’s remarks as “xenophobic” in tweets of her own, turning them around to criticise Trump’s immigration policies and project Democratic unity. “Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power,” she wrote of Democrats.
Representative Ben Ray Lujan said Trump would do better to spend his time on the humanitarian crisis at the southern border and to address other pressing national concerns like prescription drug costs than attacking members of Congress. “That is a racist tweet,” Lujan said on “Fox News Sunday.” Representative Brendan F Boyle, Democrat of Pennsylvania, made the point that he is from an immigrant family, but had never come under racially charged criticism from the president. He is white. “Like some of my Democratic colleagues, I’m young, from an immigrant family, also very critical of Trump,” Boyle posted on Twitter. “Funny thing though, he never tells me to ‘go back where I come from.’ Hmm I wonder why?”