LAST UPDATE | 15 Jul 2019

US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has lashed out again at progressive Democratic congresswomen he attacked over the weekend in tweets dismissed as “racist” and “xenophobic”.

“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,” Trump wrote on Twitter this afternoon.

“So many people are angry at them & their horrible & disgusting actions,” Trump said.

He continued: 

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.

Yesterday, Trump referred on Twitter to “‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen” in remarks that appeared to be aimed at a group of outspoken relatively young, liberal women of color, all first-time members of the House of Representatives. 

These women include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

In his tweets, Trump claimed the women “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world”. 

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,” he wrote.

‘What racism looks like’

Trump 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 he may have been referring to Omar and Tlaib, who have recently been embroiled in controversies related to the Jewish state.

Tlaib, who was born in Detroit, is the first American of Palestinian descent elected to Congress, while Omar, who fled war-torn Somalia as a child and came to the US as a refugee, is the first black Muslim woman in Congress.

Ocasio-Cortez, who was born in New York, is of Puerto Rican ancestry, and Pressley, who was born in Cincinnati, is the first African American elected to Congress from Massachusetts.

The four woman have hit back at Trump over his comments. 

“I am fighting corruption in OUR country. I do it every day when I hold your admin accountable as a US Congresswoman,” Tlaib tweeted.

“You are stoking white nationalism bc you are angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda,” Omar wrote on Twitter.

“THIS is what racism looks like. WE are what democracy looks like,” Pressley wrote over a screenshot of Trump’s tweets, while Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that Trump is “angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us.”

‘Making America white again’

The women have been joined in their criticism of Trump by Democratic presidential candidates as well as leaders from the party, which holds the majority in the House of Representatives.

“Racism and xenophobia have no place in America,” tweeted former vice president Joe Biden, the frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

Senator Elizabeth Warren slammed Trump’s comments as “a racist and xenophobic attack on Democratic congresswomen”.

 Senator Kamala Harris tweeted: “Let’s call the president’s racist attack exactly what it is: un-American.”

“That’s a racist tweet,” Assistant House Speaker Ben Ray Lujan, the highest-ranking Latino member of Congress, said on Fox News Sunday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has warned her party to avoid the “menace” of liberal policies pushed by Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives, if Democrats hope to beat Trump in the 2020 election.

However, she yesterday criticised Trump’s “attack”.

“I reject @realDonaldTrump’s xenophobic comments meant to divide our nation,” she tweeted.

Trump’s remarks, she said, reaffirmed “his plan to ‘Make America Great Again’ has always been about making America white again.”

Meanwhile, senior Republican lawmakers were notably silent on Trump’s comments.

Trump later doubled down on his remarks, attacking Democrats for coming to the lawmakers’ defence.

“So sad to see the Democrats sticking up for people who speak so badly of our Country,” Trump tweeted.

Includes reporting by - © AFP 2019