Trump: 'Squad' should 'apologize to America'

Republican President Donald Trump has continued his attack on first-term Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, against whom he launched xenophobic tweets last week.

"I don't believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country," Trump tweeted of the ethnic-minority Democrats. "They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said. They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!"

In a highly controversial tweet last week, the president told the four women of color to "go back" to where they came from if they didn't like the United States. All four women are US citizens: Three were born in the United States, and the fourth, Omar, has lived there since she came to the US as a child refugee.

The House of Representatives rebuked Trump for his comments on Tuesday, and the congresswomen have answered the president with strong words.

Ocasio-Cortez retweeted Trump on Sunday, adding a list of things that Democrats "fight to guarantee" — including health care, student loan forgiveness, living wages and basic human rights. "You: Jack up drug prices, appoint Betsy DeVos [as education secretary] to scam student loans, hurt immigrant kids," she wrote.

Tlaib wrote: "He tweets. We take action." She listed measures passed by House Democrats.

The president appears dead set on manipulating racial divisions as he faces a tough road to reelection in 2020. Trump first tapped into the grievances of white Americans to secure his Electoral College victory in 2016 — winning 57% of white voters while his rival, Hillary Clinton, won just 37%, though she won the national popular vote by a margin of nearly 3 million ballots.

Senator Cory Booker, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, on Sunday called Trump "worse than a racist."

 

'Extremely divisive'

In comments that German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized at her annual summer press conference on Friday, Trump described the lawmakers as "left-wing ideologues (who) see our nation as a force of evil." He falsely accused Representative Ocasio-Cortez, who is Latinx, of calling Americans "garbage."

"It's extremely divisive," said Congressman Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, who, like Omar and Pressley, is black. Tlaib was born in Detroit to immigrants from Palestine.

In 2016, Trump called former leader Barack Obama "the most ignorant president in our history" and said "nobody respects us," referring America's international status. On Sunday, Stephen Miller, who is behind some of the president's immigration policies, said Trump had sought to put America first and had not intended to sow discord.

Speaking on a talk show, Miller praised Trump's efforts to keep displaced people from the US and strong-arm allies into trade deals that favor the country. He said the Democrat lawmakers, who advocate for low-income people and excluded groups, threatened to undermine the national way of life. "They detest America as it exists," he said.

mkg/cmk (Reuters, AFP, AP)

Every day, DW's editors send out a selection of hard news and features. Sign up here.