President Trump on Monday stepped up his attacks on a group of four freshman Democratic lawmakers, calling the group of minority women a “Racist group of troublemakers.”
“The ‘Squad’ is a very Racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart,” Trump tweeted while en route to the Supreme Court to pay his respects to the late Justice John Paul Stevens.
For more than a week, the president has battled charges of racism after telling the group, made up of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), to “go back” to where they came from.
{mosads}All four members of the self-described squad are U.S. citizens, and three of the four were born in the U.S.
Trump, on Sunday, tweeted that the lawmakers are incapable of “loving our country.”
“I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country. 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!” he tweeted.
Trump came under fire last week after the crowd at one of his rallies chanted “send her back” in reference to Omar, who came to the U.S. from Somalia as a refugee. The president initially disavowed the chants, but later praised the supporters who made them and criticized what he called “crazed” media coverage of the incident.
Updated at 11:23 a.m.