Donald Trump took aim at a group of congresswomen of color in a controversial attack on Sunday, telling the Bronx born and raised Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to go back to her “original” countries.
The attacks came in a series of tweets aimed at freshman members of congress, with Trump saying he “doesn’t even know where they came from.” As Mediaite noted, Trump was taking aim at a group of members of Congress who voted against the House version of the border bill — Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).
Omar was the only member of that group born outside the United States, yet Trump said in a tweet that they should go back to their “original” countries.
“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. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!” Trump wrote.
Ocasio-Cortez has spoken frequently about her upbringing in the Bronx, and now represents the district that borders Trump’s own childhood home in Queens.
The attack appeared to have racial undertones, the Independent noted, as all were women of color. As the report noted, many commenters immediately slammed the attack as racist, with some even calling it “early Hitler”-style rhetoric.
“Three of the four were born here, so you may be right about fixing the place where they were born,” one person responded. “The fourth is a citizen. All were elected by a majority. You fail on all counts.”
He's unmistakably referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and her allies in what's become known as the squad. The others are Reps. Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.
— seattlepi (@seattlepi) July 14, 2019
Three of those four were born in the U.S. https://t.co/eIv2MtYPy8
There’s a lot of repellent stuff in these tweets, but it’s interesting that Trump presumes Ayanna Pressley (born in Chicago), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born in NYC), and Rashida Tlaib (born in Detroit) were not born in the USA. pic.twitter.com/2vHjEnMdRs
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 14, 2019
Donald Trump has often been slammed for what critics say are racially charged attacks against his perceived political opponents. He has been widely criticized for referring to Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has Native American heritage, as “Pocahontas” both in Twitter and in campaign rallies. Warren was targeted for allegations that she embellished her Native American heritage, though maintained that she was told she had a distant Native American ancestor. The Massachusetts Senator later released the results of a DNA test showing she had a Native American ancestor.
Donald Trump has also frequently taken aim at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, though also reserved some praise for her as well. As The Guardian noted, Trump said in a recent interview that she has a “certain talent” and compared her to former Argentinian first lady Eva Peron, though also said he believes the Bronx congresswoman “knows nothing.”