Trump reiterates racist and xenophobic comments as #RacistPresident trends

US President Donald Trump has recently been severely criticised internationally for his suggestion to four non-white Democratic Congresswomen asking them to "leave" the country because they "hate it". The Democrats and some Republican lawmakers have since accused him of racism and white supremacy.

A day after the hashtag #RacistPresident started trending on Twitter post the comment stating "they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came", Trump on Monday denied all allegations. EfeNews reported that Trump didn’t believe his statements about the Congresswomen were racist. The comments don’t concern him, he said because “many people agree with me”.

On Monday, the President of the Free World reiterated to reporters at the White House that if the four lawmakers "hate our country", they can leave.

His rant seemed focused against Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American, the first naturalized citizen from Africa, the first non-white woman elected from Minnesota and one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress. She was not born in the US.

"Somebody that comes from Somalia, which is a failed government, a failed state, who left Somalia and ultimately came here and now is a congresswoman, is never happy," accused Trump. He said, Omar "says horrible things about Israel, hates Israel, hates Jews, hates Jews, it's very simple"..

"If you're not happy here, then you can leave," Trump said and was met with cheers and applause. "As far as I'm concerned, if you hate our country, if you're not happy here, you can leave. Come back if you want, don't come back, that's okay too. But if you're not happy, you can leave.”

The other Congresswomen Trump addressed however, were born in the US. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a New Yorker with Puerto Rican roots, Rashida Tlaib comes from Detroit and her parents are Palestinian and African-American Ayanna Pressley was born in Chicago.

The four women entered Congress in January, having been elected in the November balloting, and they now make up a group popularly known as "The Squad" which has attracted much media attention for being in the vanguard of the Democratic Party's progressive wing and for their verbal jousting over policy with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also a Democrat.

The four women on Monday condemned Trump's tweets but asked that not so much attention should be paid to this latest "distraction" by the President.“Weak minds and weak leaders challenge loyalty to our country to avoid challenging and debating policy. This president does not know how to defend his policies, so what he does is attack us personally," said Ocasio-Cortez at the press conference.

Omar said she refused to dignify Trump's earlier claim that she supports Al Qaeda with a response, adding that white nationalists say similar things on the internet and now have arrived at the White House.

Meanwhile, amid the controversy, Pelosi prepared a resolution asking her Democratic colleagues in Congress to formally condemn Trump's comments and urging Republicans to denounce his "xenophobic tweets".

Initially, just one Republican, Chip Roy, openly condemned the president's remarks, but later the only two Republican African Americans in Congress, Senator Tim Scott and Congressman Will Hurd, criticised what they called his "racist" and "xenophobic" remarks. World leaders such as New Zealand’s Prime Minister have also condemned the comments.

Moderate Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski also criticised Trump's tweets, while Senator Pat Toomey said that the US citizenship of the four Democratic congresswomen is just as valid as the President’s own, he himself being the grandson of Irish immigrants.

With inputs from IANS.