Trump tells progressive freshman congresswomen to 'go back' to their 'broken and crime infested' countries

Getty/Lars Niki, AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, Associated Press

Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), President Donald Trump, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)

• President Donald Trump tweeted about the "'Progressive' Democrat Congresswomen" Sunday morning, asking them to "go back" to their "corrupt" and "broken and crime infested" countries before "telling the people of the United States [...] how our government is to be run."
• Trump also tweeted that he was "sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements," effectively siding with Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the infighting that has escalated between her and the four freshman congresswomen nicknamed the "Squad."
• Squad members include Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
• Of the four progressive freshmen congresswomen, only Omar was born outside the US, in Mogadishu, Somalia.
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President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning asking the "'Progressive' Democrat Congresswomen" to "go back" to their "corrupt" and "broken and crime infested" countries. He claimed the congresswomen, most likely referring to the "Squad" of freshman progressives, were "loudly [...] and viciously telling the people of the United States [...] how our government is to be run."

Instead, Trump suggested that the congresswomen, who he tweeted "originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all)," should "go back and help fix" the "places from which they came."

"These places need your help badly, you can't leave fast enough," Trump tweeted, along with saying "I'm sure Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!"

Trump tweeted amidst infighting between House Democrats, most notably between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who accused Pelosi of "explicitly singling out" the "newly elected women of color," such as when Pelosi told The New York Times that Ocasio-Cortez and the Squad "didn't have any following."

Read more: House Democrats infighting escalates with late-night tweet

The Squad includes Ocasio-Cortez, along with Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar. Of the four, only Omar was born outside the US. Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx borough of New York City, Tlaib was born in Detroit, Michigan, and Pressley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Omar was born in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. On her official campaign website, Omar says she and her family fled Somalia's civil war when she was 8-years-old, living in a refugee camp in Kenya for four years before immigrating to the US and moving to the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis in 1997.

Trump continued firing off tweets and retweets after his attack on the freshman congresswomen, sharing 22 retweets and tweeting "we are getting it done anyway" in a quote tweet of a supporter saying he shouldn't have to defend himself from attacks.

None of the freshman congresswomen Squad members responded immediately on Twitter, and neither did Pelosi.

• Read more:
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Nancy Pelosi is picking on newly elected women of color
• AOC's chief of staff slams Pelosi on Twitter over op-ed controversy: 'Pelosi is just mad that she got outmaneuvered (again)'
• An increasingly public, racially-charged rift in the Democratic party is widening after attacks are lobbed between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's camp and the Democratic establishment
• This graphic shows how much more diverse the House of Representatives is getting