On Sunday morning, Donald Trump began the day by bashing freshman members of Congress who share one common trait: they are not white and of European descent. In a long-standing racist sentiment, Trump told the female congresswomen to go back to where they came from and fix their home countries before calling out issues in the United States. For three of the four of them, the United States is their home country. For the fourth, who became a citizen of this country at the age of 17, echoes of 2016 and Trump’s pandering to his racist and xenophobic fanbase were pointed out.
Omar is routinely criticized for pointing out issues in the U.S. government by both Trump and his rabid fanbase, although each of them has attacked a sitting president (Obama) and insisted that America was no longer great, hence Trump’s whole “make America great again” slogan. Her brown skin and Middle Eastern heritage, however, has made her a target and a whipping girl for Trump’s white nationalist followers.
No matter how much Trump wants an all-white, all-European Congress and population in this country, immigrants show every day that they are more committed, harder-working, and more intelligent than he will ever be. His wealth, his failed businesses, his feigned superiority, and his endless criticisms of women and anyone who isn’t white do not make him more of an American than the immigrants who founded this country, fought and died for it, and continue to work to make America a better place for everyone.
Omar’s Twitter followers proudly supported her response to the president. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image via Flickr by Prachatai under a Creative Commons license
