Trump’s attack directed at progressive ‘Squad’
US President Donald Trump told four Democrat Congresswomen of colour to “go back” to the “crime-infested places” they came from.
His attack, on Twitter, was directed at a group of young progressives often referred to as the ‘Squad’: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC,New York), Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts), Rashida Tlaib (Michigan) and Ilhan Omar (Minnesota).
Omar is from Somalia and came to the US in the 1990s as a refugee, becoming a citizen five years later. The remaining three were born in the US.
Tlaib called his attacks “simply a continuation of his racist, xenophobic playbook” while Pressley called his attacks an attempt to “marginalise and silence” them.
Trump’s attacks may have been a distraction from the planned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that target undocumented migrants. The Squad urged the public “not to take the bait” and stay focused on conditions at the US border.
The Congresswomen have previously accused Trump of trying to cover up human rights abuses at migrant detention centres at the border. AOC called them “concentration camps” after visiting the centres last month.
Who responded?
Several Democrat senators have called the attack racist. House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has been in an escalating conflict with the Squad over immigration reforms, said Trump’s tweet has proved that his “Make America Great Again” campaign had always been about “making America white again.”
World leaders, including US allies, have also decried his attack. Outgoing UK Prime Minister Theresa May called his comments “simply unacceptable” and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said that “this is not how we do things in Canada.”
Notably absent from the conversation were top Republican senators including Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader. Only a few moderate Republicans spoke out, including the only African American Republican senator Tim Scott, who called the comments “racially offensive”.
The fight with Pelosi
Pelosi’s fight with the Squad started when they refused to back an emergency border funding bill a couple of weeks ago over concerns that the funding would be diverted away from humanitarian aid to immigration enforcement.
The four progressives were the only Democrats to vote against the bill, which passed the House but was later defeated at the Senate. The Senate then pressured the House to adopt their bill, which contained far fewer progressive elements.
The fight has since escalated over Twitter, with Pelosi calling the Squad “irrelevant” and AOC’s chief of staff comparing moderate Democrats to segregationists. A senior House Democrat anonymously told The Hill that AOC was a “puppet” of “elitist white liberals” and “only a woman of colour when it’s convenient.”
These comments have revealed deep divisions between the younger, progressive leftists and older, more moderate liberals within the Democratic Party.
“Donald Trump may have momentarily smoothed over these divisions this weekend, but the fissures remain, and Pelosi needs to heal them,” Michelle Goldberg wrote for The New York Times. “This fight is alienating and demoralising people whom the Democratic Party needs.”
The US is facing an election year and Democrats are fighting over how to win the election. The young progressives think the party should stick to an uncompromising message to bring out disillusioned constituents to vote, while moderates think they should project a more centrist message to appeal to voters in ‘swing states’ (states that do not regularly vote for Democrats or Republicans) – a strategy that won Democrats their majority in the House.