Over the weekend, President Trump unleashed a vile Twitter campaign against four congresswomen of color and showcased the most recent example of his unrepentant racism.
In a series of tweets directed at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, the president unapologetically otherized the congresswomen and explicitly suggested that being a minority translates to being non-American.
Likely to the excitement of his white nationalist base, Trump suggested the four women "go back" to the "crime infested" countries "from which they came." On Monday, the president doubled down on his remarks, telling the press: “They’re free to leave if they want. If they want to leave, that’s fine. If they want to stay, that’s fine.”
Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, and Pressley were born in this country, and Ilhan Omar was a refugee from Somalia. All four of these women are American. Period. But for Trump and for the people who support him, it's their non-whiteness that makes them "the other."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took to Twitter over the weekend to condemn the president's hate speech and remind those who still claim to be unknowing: “‘Make America Great Again,’ has always been about making America white again.”
Many on Twitter echoed similar sentiments, circulating the hashtag #RacistPresident. Read some of them below.
