President Trump made emphatically clear on Monday that he will not be letting up on the “Squad” of far-left Democratic congresswomen any time soon — in fact, he’s escalating his criticism, labeling the radical freshmen representatives a “very racist group of troublemakers” and slamming their “anti-Israel and anti-Semitic” rhetoric. Their comments, he said, are “pulling the once great Democrat Party far left.”
Trump’s feud with the “Squad” — Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), Rashida Tlaib (MI), and Ayanna Pressley — took over the news cycle last week after he urged them to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came” in a pair of tweets Sunday. The comment forced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to defend the group, after having just publicly rebuked them, and formally reprimand Trump on Tuesday, which prompted the president to ramp up the attacks even more. Monday morning, Trump unloaded on the four congresswomen.
“The ‘Squad’ is a very Racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart,” Trump tweeted Monday. “They are pulling the once great Democrat Party far left, and were against humanitarian aid at the Border…And are now against ICE and Homeland Security. So bad for our Country!”
Trump also ripped the Squad to the White House press corps Monday morning.
“The women have said horrible things about our country and the people of our country,” Trump told reporters in a clip reported by The Hill. “Nobody should be able to do that — and if they want to do that, that’s up to them, but I can’t imagine that they’re going to do very well at the polls. And I say this: If the Democrats want to embrace people that hate our country, people that are so far left that no one’s ever seen anything like it, if they want to embrace people that are so anti-Semitic and anti-Israel — if they want to do that, that’s up to them, but I don’t have to do that. I think what they say and what they’ve said is a disgrace to them, to the Democrats, and, frankly, to our country.”
And he wasn’t done. “The things they’ve said about our country are terrible,” he told reporters in another clip. “What they’ve said about Israel are just terrible. I don’t know, I can’t say for sure, but certainly a lot of people say they hate our country.”
The president’s comments follow another broadside he launched on the four congresswomen Sunday: “I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country,” he tweeted. “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!”
Related: CNN: ‘Frustrated’ Democrats Think Trump’s ‘Go Back’ Comments ‘Politically Brilliant’