One word for you and yours, Mr President: REPUGNANT!
"Patriotism is a maggot in their heads." ~ HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Your jingoism especially.
"If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave." ~ MO WILLEMS
Which is exactly what I did seven years ago, on Thursday, November 8, 2012, two days after the national election –
never to return. Didn't need to wait for Trump.
"I have no further use for America. I wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President." ~ CHARLIE CHAPLIN
• Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx to parents of Puerto Rican descent.
FYI: Ms Ocasio's (proper family name, no hyphenated -Cortez) mother was, like me, Puerto Rican born.
I am a NEVER AMERICAN Puerto Rican national. I am now a proud and content Canadian citizen in the process of renouncing the U.S. faux citizenship imposed on me at birth in 1945 and on Puerto Rico in 1917.
• “Mr. President,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter, “the country I ‘come from,’ & the country we all swear to, is the United States. But given how you’ve destroyed our border with inhumane camps, all at a benefit to you & the corps who profit off them, you are absolutely right about the corruption laid at your feet.”
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between." ~ OSCAR WILDE
I would personally welcome Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna S. Pressley.
Canada welcomes immigrants ... EVEN FROM THE USA!
39
It would have been better to simply point out that no one is holding a gun to their head and forcing them to stay here.
And, that if they hate the people, the Constitution, and the legal system here so much, they are free to leave at any time.
48
@Objectivist As are Trump and his enablers.
82
@Objectivist
Exactly who are the “they’ you refer to. It doesn’t appear that you even read the article or even understand what the issue is from your comment. The article addresses US citizens, three were born here in the United States, and only one came here as a child and has been a US citizen for at least 20 years.
100
@Objectivist - so why should they leave the country in which they were born? and unless you are a 100% Native American maybe you should think about joining them.
99
Trump has no respect for the presidency. We have had some pretty bad presidents, but, in contrast to Trump, they had at least some respect for the office, including some sense of decorum. Trump has none of that. All he cares about is saying things and pursuing policies that his alleged "base" of voters and donors supposedly want to hear, regardless of how immoral, rotten, low, or harmful to the people of this country. To Trump, it's not about governing, it's only about his voters and his greedy wealthy donors.
1628
This is probably the most contemptible thing I've ever heard from a US president. If Republicans do not repudiate hate speech such as this, the future of our democracy is in peril.
160
@Robert Billet I would go a step further. His strategy is not to tell his base what they want to hear as much as it is to troll those of us who don’t support him. This also has the result of pleasing his base. Divisiveness is his strategy. He requires it.
114
@Robert Billet
Bill Clinton hardly displayed "respect for the office".
14
Trump continues to cross the line of racism. Those who continue to support him are abetting his destructive behaviors.
240
Usually Trump’s tweets are so outrageous that it’s difficult to misinterpret them, but this article clearly does just that.
The tweet of our demagogue-in-chief said essentially that if those concerned find the US such a horrible, unlivable place, they always have the option to go back to the countries where they or their parents were born, fix them and live there. He didn’t simply say “Just get out of “our” country”, as this article implies. It does make a big difference and a lot of people who are normally center-left but are not willing to swallow the far-left open borders policy are not fooled by this type of lie by omission.
I would have never believed that I would have to write something in defense of Trump, but demagogy seems to come strong from both sides these days.
30
@Gimme A. Break
I'm not interested in deciphering anything 'implied'. The title clearly states, ' Trump tells freshman congresswomen to 'go back' to the countries they came from'. That's what he said. Nothing implied.
76
The Democrat Party call the Betsy Ross flag a sign of oppression and racism, protest a citizenship question on a US census form as racist, call the July 4th "Salute to America" a tribute to white nationalism and claim deporting people that have received due process and final deportation orders as racist. When someone tells you how they hate America, believe them. Pray for America and vote them all out. Vote America!
35
Should we believe them when they say you hate America, because America moved on and embraced different cultures and variety of people, and you was not able to keep up the pace.
22
As disrespectful and corrosive as they are, they had it coming!!
30
Your talking about trump, right?
61
And what Trump has coming for him being so disrespectful of American people?
28
It tells you how "off" the Democratic candidates must be when things Donald Trump says about them actually makes sense.
29
re Leonard Barnes- to you perhaps, but not me and hopefully not to enough Americans to keep this nightmare going for a second term.
44
Let's tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, shall we:
Both Trump *and* the "squad" -- Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib, and Pressley -- are bigots.
Bigots come in more than one color and in more than one flavor.
99
How deceptive the headline of this news article. He was specifically referring to Ilhan Omar who has complained of how terrible the US is as a nation. So like any logical man, he recommended she return to her home country so she can try some of the policies she would like to implement in the US and help her native people first. Absolutely NOTHING racist about that. His willingness to take on critics and rivals head on is one of the reasons he won and one of the reasons he will be re-elected in 2020.
65
I am a person of color and I agree with your comment. These countries have been held back because of their leadership and organization. If Ms. Omar really cared about suffering minorities why would she not be leading in Somalia? I guess she thinks all of Trump's comments are true!!!!
20
@samuel
I am still trying to figure out what Trump's spin will be. Did he not refer to the CongresswomEn - plural? Omar is one. Who else?
11
@samuel. Trump was speaking in the plural and referring to four minority Congresswomen (not Congresswoman). The home country for three of them was the USA, and it is now Ilhan Omar’s country also.
What is your “home country”? What are the home countries of the 43 people who liked your comment. How far back should this “home country?” bigotry go?
The home country of my grandparents does not exist any more. It has changed hands twice since since they lived there, torn apart and lost because of horrible wars fought in part over ethnicity. Trump and the people who cheer him on seem to be wishing the same thing on the the US.
40
As a young person of color in Boston, I would hear “go back to Roxbury where you belong.” This while I, an American-born citizen, ventured out of the public housing projects to the downtown area or to Fenway Park.
Boston, that beloved, venerated “cradle of liberty,” the lie upon which the city always leaned upon to gild its national and international reputation, was home to, among many others, the ethic Irish and Italian people. They were, of course, the recipients of Lady Liberty’s shining beacon of light, that same metaphor that shone upon New York Harbor. Funny, but those dusty European immigrants from such splendid origins as Italy and Ireland were, it seemed, always the loudest in proclaiming a seat at the table in the crowded banquet hall of freedom—and vociferously snarling at the presence there of others—ignoring those who preceded them by centuries.
And this president’s echoing of the un-American and unwelcoming sentiment has found a welcome home around the nation and, in especial, Capitol Hill, the serpents’ nest of poisonous policy, the Republican Senate its most weighty instrument in the president’s grip.
It’s a thousand pities that the Indigenous Peoples, when standing ashore, watching the raggedy rowboats from the European ships anchored a little further out at sea, didn’t tell the interlopers, “Go back where you came from.”
668
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
We've been positively commenting on one another's NYT comments for a while. Let me know if you want us to grab coffee in beantown sometime.
37
@Remarque
There are a lot of Boston area commenters that I would love to meet! I'm living in Concord, NH now and would drive down anytime to get together!
25
Maybe the Italians and the Irish were denigrated, humiliated and attacked when they arrived too. Truth. Doesn't excuse the behavior of the few but need I remind you of "No Irish need apply"?
33
Trump is brilliant. He tweets something outrageous and gets his opponents to focus on him. He’s just exercising his first amendment rights. It doesn’t matter if what he says is true or not. He’s standing up for American values. He’s supporting the Constitution. It’s Democrats who have been attacking our liberties. Americans can see this and that’s why Trump will be re-elected next year.
331
@Mark How is he supporting the constitution by arguing that born American members of Congress should be deported?
469
We've gotten to the point where it's not clear if this is sarcasm. People do say things like this in sincerity. Usually with misspellings though.
208
@Mark
His tweets were racist.
153
It was visceral and extremely caustic, but “the squad” deserved the invective. They are collectivists who are derisive of American society, which they wish to remake. Good for President Trump! I would strip Omar of her citizenship and deport her to Somalia in a New York minute! On what grounds? Coffee grounds, if necessary!
15
@J.Jones Fortunately, you're not in a position to strip people of their citizenship. (And, um, what???)
We're allowed, as Americans, to be derisive of our society when we think it's going wrong. In fact, we're expected to.
38
Interestingly, just last week AOC called Nancy a racist, so even Nancy can be a racist if you dare criticize anyone of color on their policies.
The second point, he also states that they must come back to the USA after they demonstrated how to fix a problem.
15
I'll try again. My first comment wasn't published. I direct this to the NYT editors. Why aren't Trump's tweets no matter how silly or bigoted or anger-provoking page 10 or 11 news instead of top of page 1. The more oxygen you give him, the more he responds. Does no one yet understand that he feeds off the attention he's given?
35
Trump's father (Frederick Christ Trump - no joke) was born in the Bronx to German immigrants Friedrich Trump and Elizabeth Christ Trump. Trump's mother (Mary Anne MacLeod Trump) was born in Scotland. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx, her father (Sergio Ocasio) was also born in the Bronx while her mother (Blanca Ocasio-Cortez) was born in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico became a US territory in 1900 and Puerto Ricans have been US citizens since 1917, so neither of AOC's parents were technically "immigrants", and one could argue that Donald Trump is less qualified as a US citizen than AOC. But all our President sees is skin color, which is a textbook definition of racism.
52
The Burning Pit
Out in the open, smolderings burn
waiting for quenching to cool its heat.
Embers raze, responsible though compelled by oath,
wax corrupted, flames fanned instead.
Cottony response against outrageous iniquity
feebly douses, only multiplies ill thinking forces
whose gated world encourages destruction.
Black and white knights feebly absorb heady scorching.
Beseech a tan force capturing minds and hearts
defying melting in ennobled survival's name.
Rising up with backbone ferocity, saving solid alloy,
breeds, heeds, feeds freedom's cause.
The Republicans, as they have in almost all things the past few years, have been silent on Trump’s latest racist outrage.
If you are a woman, a visible minority, if you consider yourself a decent, caring human, if you believe in democracy and in the things that have made America truly great, you, as a voter with a functioning mind and a conscience, would find it impossible to vote for any Republican. How can you? They are none of the things you believe yourself to be. You care about America. They don't.
20
Trump supporters have the disease called " Mayflower Syndrome" meaning: I was here first you're not welcome.
I suggest everybody take a trip to Arlington National cemetery and read the names of the fallen from all different backgrounds, color and religion.
This is not the America I legally immigrated and became a citizen and raised a son who's serving as an officer in the USMC to defend this nation. I'm not going back but I would think twice if I would have known this.
22
For crying out loud P L E A S E take away his phone or shut down his twitter account. Good grief, the man is a menace to the planet.
24
They play the "victim" card as often as they do the "race" card. Stopped playing cards a long time ago.
9
Here's what I wrote to my Republican senators today:
Dear Senator Tillis/Burr, I do hope that you are as shocked as I am about the president's incendiary and racist tweets attacking four duly elected Congresswomen. This president does grievous harm to the very fabric of a country that is, despite all Republican wishes to the contrary, a diverse country made up of immigrants and children of immigrants. Why do Republicans in Congress sit on their hands and continue to support a president who attacks people based on the color of their skin or the sound of their last name? A president who is married to an immigrant with white skin, who always directs his attacks to immigrants who do not have white skin. There is absolutely no question that this president is a confirmed, public, loudmouthed racist with a foul mouth and an ugly character. You need to stand up to his acts of racism. Do you not even respect your fellow Congresspeople from the other side of the aisle enough to defend them against such ugly attacks, based on lies? You're allowing this president to create such deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats, between whites and nonwhites, between current immigrants and descendants of immigrants, that I truly don't know how we recover. All you seem to care about is counting votes and contributions. Please show me I'm wrong.
34
My daughter has a T-shirt showing a picture of several Native Americans in full headdress on horseback. The caption below says "We've been fighting illegal immigration since 1492". Read "American Holocaust" to see how the European Christians from Spain and elsewhere "pacified" the Americas via mass slaughter.
The human race has always had it's dark side. But the purpose of civilization is to suppress it and bring out the positive. It's not doing a very good job when filthy comments like Trump's have people merely shaking their heads but doing nothing more.
20
Trump said "Go back and FIX". What is wrong with that? If the countries where the immigrants came from were nice places to live, the United States wouldn't have an immigration problem.
Also. To the ILLEGAL immigrants. I you don't have a TOOTHBRUSH in the detention center, go back and get the one you left at home or find the one you were using during your 2 month walk in the caravan !!
14
NYT: What does "widely established as a racist trope" even mean? You are suggesting Trump's tweets were widely condemned as racist, but they were not. As your article states - far too many paragraphs down - not a single Republican condemned Trump's vile statements or corrected his lies. It was not "a factually inaccurate claim" that the women were not born in the US, either. It was a lie, just like Trump's lie that Obama was not born in the US was a lie. Use plain words: Trump tweeted racist lies. Republicans said nothing.
15
The silence of the GOP is outrageous. Complicity is a weak word for these cowardly and despicable enablers. Utterly disgraceful. Trump is no surprise; however, the shamefulness of an entire political party is too distressing to process.
18
There is one person in America today who has the power to put a stop to this racist bigotry -- Nancy Pelosi.
When Ms. Pelosi allows her fellow House Democrats to begin a formal impeachment investigation, then I'll start to listen to her again. Until that time comes, she is just another yammering busy-body wasting our collective time.
The fact that this up-and-coming racist dictator and tyrant still holds the Oval Office is an indictment of America.
10
Ignore the tantrum throwing toddler in the White House. Attention (whether it be negative or positive) is his oxygen. Deprive him of it and he just might be destroyed/defeated once and for all.
8
Yes, they should each go fix their totally broken home country, whose government is a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most inept anywhere in the world. The country is named the United States of America.
23
Wasn't there a saying about "Racism being last refuge of a scoundrel" ?
Donald Trump fits the bill.
12
To Senator Mitch McConnell, your wife was born in Taiwan. Do you have any comments on President Trump's remarks here? Do any Republicans in Washington DC have any comments on the remarks? Are there any Republicans that stand against hate and bigotry? We won't wait for your response as your silence speaks volumes.
24
Ms. Pressley’s family has lived in the US longer than Trump’s. This man is a disgrace to his office.
26
For every person of color brought here under the umbrella of slavery, when told to leave they should, take every brick that the White House sits on with them.
15
This slow simmering cauldron has been in place for awhile. At this point in 2019 I have to forgive the people who voted for trump in 2016.
In the coming election anyone who again votes for him after 4 years of malfeasance, corruption and unamerican behavior are truly capital D deplorable’s.
17
Now that we have expressed our disgust and the well deserved derision of the man in office. What specific, clear and to the point any of the parties has to offer outside amnesty ,DACA or false promises. We are starving for decisive actions that focuses on US citizens first. It is a huge fallacy to assume that Democrats support unbridled illegal immigration. Wake up!
4
The overt racism of this president is bad enough. That his base absolutely adores every foul, hateful, hurtful comment that comes out of his mouth is astounding. We are in the middle of a political civil war and I fear the Republicans will win. They are gerrymandering Democrats out of ever winning an election everywhere they can and our fake Supreme Court is ok with that. I could go on and on but what would be the point.
14
Unfortunately, "The Squad" is employing Trumpian tactics---attacking those who do not bend to their will (calling Speaker Pelosi racist) and whipping their cult following not toward the common good, but baiting them to join their ill-thought, selfish grab for power.
They purport to be working for noble causes but they speak more of "taking power from those who have it" more than working for the consensus necessary to obtain real power to accomplish goals for the common good.
They are Trumps best friends and don't know it.
16
Actually, Trump was right about 3 of the US Congresswomen. he said: "So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world,”
Ever since he came to power, his assessment of "other" countries is exactly what the US has become!
14
What has happened to our country? It is simply beyond belief that no Republicans denounce the words coming out of Trump's mouth. Have our elected officials really sunk so low that they will keep silent no matter what occurs? What do these people tell their children when the kids ask about the lies and racism Trump spews? This is certainly not the noble Patrick Henry American history taught in school.
13
I'm a glass half-full kind of guy and in this latest pile of ish, I think I see the pony.
Feeling the need to dig deep into the bag o' slurs, one senses an act of desperation for the trump and his minions. And I think this is justified. Eventually, I believe it will be sooner than later, America will be held to account for the terrible treatment it has imposed on minorities. That reckoning will not be pleasant. You talk about white fear? This is what many whites are truly afraid of: finally being held accountable.
Of course, this is to be avoided at all costs. Thus, the thing we call Our President.
11
Amazing how this man is so frightened of strong, young women. Keep it up ladies!
19
If you are neutral in situations of injustice,
you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
-Desmond Tutu
25
“A spokesman for Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, declined to comment on Mr. Trump’s remarks.”
Continuing to secure his place in history as a completely spineless coward.
29
I'm incredibly sad. 250+ years of building a great country is being destroyed in a matter of minutes by a the worse human being ever to sit in the White House. God I miss Nixon right now.
12
Words matter! Trump is stoking bigotry to distract from Mueller & Epstein, as well as fire up bigots in his base. The problem is that this escalates into shootings at Syangogues and Mosques. What happened to a president with common decency. I was not a Dubya fan on pretty much anything, but he was a good example for children, fathers and brothers and said things to diffuse racism(other than campaign dog whistles)especially after September 11, when it was popular to target Muslims. These 4 women are much less of a threat to America or Israel than Mr. Trump is!
14
how can Trump speak this way about people and other countries when he is the one dragging our country into a swamp lower than any of them?
15
President Trumps comments were uncalled for and inaccurate and left himself open to being called racist But I I refuse to believe or support and of the criticism that theses lawmakers have leveled against the United States. They are individuals who are not trying to make America better but rather, trying to destroy the attributes that have made it the greater country in history despite its shortcomings.
6
Please, please, NY Times reporters: We know Trump is a racist.The story here is that an American president made these un-American comments and his party is completely silent. This article states McConnell "declined to comment. Republican house leaders did not respond to emails requesting comment." That's what the media should be probing--that these men and women of the GOP, with naturalized citizens among them, do not dare say a word. They should and will be called to account for their complicity. Their future pleas that they are not racists will be roundly and deservedly dismissed. All Americans, especially thos with Republican representation--let them know you're watching and you noticed their silence in the face of bigotry.
14
The projection never stops. It is the Trump administration that is "loaded up with a big percentage of criminals."
8
On the basis of his argument, could we suggest that Mr Trump should return to Germany? He could offer to take over from Mrs Merkel. And please could it be Germany, not Scotland?
8
the only winners here are the media platforms that gain clicks or eyeballs, and donald trump who enjoys even more publicity. while the rest of the country is left divided and hateful of one another.
5
It’s time for Twitter to cancel Donny’s account for hateful conduct.
He can always reconnect with his base on Vk.com
The Twitter Rules - Hateful conduct:
“You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”
13
In my heart of hearts, I am a 79-year-old small-town American boy, Christian, of Jewish ancestry, and pretty darned conservative on a lot of social issues. On Sunday I heard a powerful sermon on forgiveness, which is at the core of our faith. But this attack on his own citizens, by a hypocrite who came to power on his own loud and vicious behavior, is its own violation of nearly everything the American people ever comprehended by decency and decorum in our President. A man who inspires and incites hatred is not only playing with fire, he is playing with his own soul, according to the wisdom I heard from a Presbyterian Pastor in a small Kansas town on one Sunday morning. God be merciful to our country.
10
Trump aimed his tweet at “Progressive Democratic Congresswomen who originally came form other countries.” Congress has 28 foreign-born members, eight of whom are members the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Some Congressional Progressive Caucus are white.
Trump’s tweet was must likely aimed at Progressive Caucus Cochair Pramila Jayapal and caucus member Ilhan Omar. Both are foreign-born and both have been harshly critical of Trump and U.S. policy toward illegal immigration.
Trump’s tweet was not racist. If Pramila Jayapal and Ilhan Omar were outspoken in support of him and his policies he would be praising them. Trump appointed Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley, who has the same ancestry as Pramila Jayapal, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
3
When will we send this merit-less scoundrel back under the rock he crawled out from under?
And yes, the silence issuing forth from GOP office holders, senators and congressmen/women is deafening; they are complicit.
To anyone in a position of authority,
including the ultimate holder of that
authority, the citizen: if you permit it, you promote it.
10
It is way past time for the pres. to cease the spread of hatred and division . He , most likely won't.
We will not be able to regain our status as a world leader if we can't even get along with each other.
The Democratic candidate(s) who can concentrate on this, equitable health care, fair wages, reasonable immigration policy and pollution control will have the best chance of ridding our great country of our continuing down this dark hole. What they propose must be doable once they regain power.
The American people, for the most part, want internal peace and will vote for whomever they feel can stop the present trend in dis functional government.
The present administration is destroying our country!
5
You are focused on the MAGA crowd when,in fact, this is intended to sow discord and racial divides among moderates and progressives. Divide and conquer is a well worn strategy. One need look no farther than the racial divides that manifested after the Women's March where a unified common purpose disintegrated into racially divided sides of the most oppressed to the least oppressed. The cause for equality among all oppressed was lost in the power struggle. As such, the entire group became ineffective as a political force. Whereas a swarm of bees can kill you, a single bee is merely an irritant to be swatted.
2
45, the most flagrant arsonist with GOP's implicit fanning behind it, now have millions of Americans supporting and cheering for him and his Make America White Again policy. I can't help but start wondering who among my (white) neighbors and colleagues are secretly cheering for him. It made me shudder from my bones. After living in the USA 4 decades as a law-abiding citizen, it's perhaps time to leave and go back to the country where I was born and raised.
4
Does anyone,anyone question the racism of the President? The disturbing thing to me is the number of ministers and evangelical groups that support him. These groups seem able to also look aside at the human abuses on our borders.
5
Imagine if everyone of foreign decent with dark skin who works for Trump would go back to their country of origin just like Trump wants them to do. How long will Trump's enterprises stay in business?
4
I keep hearing "where are the Republicans" in response to Trumps Tweets. Well, I dont know where they are but I do know millions of people are pretty sick of the Squad and their antics since they got elected. I am sure Pelosi is too. They are the ones who played the Race Card against her last week.
Trump knows exactly what he's doing and I can guarantee that even though its not very Presidential, we live in times where you have to fight fire with fire and that fire is Social Media. Live by it and die by it.
If those neophyte newly elected Congress Ladies would stop acting like they know whats best for everyone and the Media would stop giving them air time we'd all be better off.
59
Well said. Tens of millions of Americans agree with you ..
11
I am not American neither have I been to America. Illegal immigration is a big issue which I feel the Democrats are taking lightly. In as much as I despise Mr Trump, the fact remains that unchecked immigration is a problem. I feel for these individuals and understand their plight, but people should not be allowed to wake up and move to another country without following due process. I say this as someone who is also making plans to immigrate because of the tough and hopeless situation in my country. Americans need to figure out how to deal with this issue without pandering to party politics. The open door policy will note work and is not sustainable. That is a fact.
9
I'm a moderate and I have no one to vote for in the next election. THAT'S SCARY AND SAD.
6
Please. You have a choice between a) wannabe Mussolini or b) anybody else. The correct answer is B.
6
Vote for the party that isn’t Leftist
2
You think this is bad, wait until the election gets down to the last few weeks/days. It's a different country and world than it was in 2016.
Two Thousand Sixteen.
Doesn't that now seem like ages ago?
It almost feels like it did after 9-11. Different world, different rules, and...none of it better.
4
What Mr Trump says about race and other nations with high rates of poverty is abhorrent to me. Unfortunately his supporters feel the press is slamming him.
If 2020 is to be the year to defeat Trump then the press needs to really and truly try to stop the sensationalism in the reporting the tweets etc from the White House and focus only on the policies and the facts. For many citizens, Trump is seen as the man who speaks to them and gives words to their thoughts. They do not see anything wrong in his right to express himself even if it is a lie.
The fight against Trump has to move to a different plain. Talk about policies that leave out the middle class. The campaign promises not kept. The allies that question our faithfulness.
Every time the press says things about his character his base defends him. Keep posting Trump report cards on government policies and changes- who benefits and who is hurt. That is the way to move forward.
3
When Donald Trump was first elected, I was saddened but hoped he would rise to the challenge. He has proven that he rarely studies issues, knows little about history and even less about how government works. Donald Trump trusts no one and rules by chaos throwing everything against the wall hoping something will stick. It does not matter if it is truthful or who he tears down to get what he thinks he wants.
As far as presidents go, he is the biggest disappointment in my lifetime and I have been around since Eisenhower.
6
Trump's views have been embedded in the messages of many politicians over the decades. He is just clarifying what that message really is when stripped down.
2
Side note: Why are we calling a group of four women in Congress "freshmen." I am a college professor and we stopped calling female students "freshmen" a long time ago. It's sexist language. Instead, we switched to "first-year students." If we don't call a female police officer a "police man" anymore, why not make the change in our nation's top offices?
2
I live in the place “from which they came”. Thank you Congresswoman Pressley for representing my family who immigrated here in the mid 17th century, as well as all my neighbors: first generation Sudanese and Vietnamese, third and fourth generation Italians, Greek and Irish etc etc. Thank you Congresswoman Pressley for being from here.
4
While we'd love to tell the president to "go back" too, we can't really, on principle, because his own grandfather was told not to return by his country, for not putting in his military service. Sound familiar?
7
trump grandfather was an immigrant, his mother was an immigrant who may have gotten into this country illegally, and his wife is an immigrant who got into this country under some very suspicious circumstances (and her family go in under chain immigration). The man is a screaming hypocrite.
15
“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world...”
What Trump said there is mostly true. Three of the four are from the United States, and we do have some inept leaders. Prominently the Republicans and Trump, particularly.
But this business of a "racist trope" according to the Times is beginning to grate. What he says, at least in the passage above, is that they are from foreign countries. Perhaps you should write "racist implications"?
5
@Mark
The only problem is that they are from America.
4
Journalists now give front page coverage to the war of the tweets. Real journalism digs into a story and reveals things that the public is unaware of. Now it is a tit for tat war between left and right where all that is required is reprinting the tweet. If the NYT sinks to this type of journalism Trump has won the war.
7
Trump loves to raise his racist flag whenever he can. And the Nationalist love him for it! His enablers are Republicans. It’s a fact that when a white man yells at persons of colour to “go back to their own country” that he is talking about a country that has only people of colour. Its a prejudiced statement toward the colour of the victims skin that is meant to harm. If anyone doubts Trump morals and beliefs it’s now undeniable that this creep is a racist and so are all his enablers: Republicans.
And there’s blame that goes to Pelosi for
throwing the progressives of her party under the bus. She broke her promise(s) to them and AOC to be exact. She used hateful terms and and encouraged negative name-calling and belittlement of four freshmen congresswomen. Pelosi even LIED directlty about them being “they were the only four votes” against her terrible sellout 4.5 billion dollar Boarder Bill. Sorry Pelosi but there were 95 democrats that voted against it. Then NP’ fanatical fans attacked these women w/ undignified and demeaning contempt. And why the viciousness started by Pelosi? Because she is out to hold onto power & is out to replace all opposition and that means getting Progressives beat & replaced w/her selected minions in 2020.
Pelosi and Trump know just what their doing with words: they mean to divide, demean, usurp the rule of decency and laws for their own power. Two pols that no trust. Lets hope like in 2016 that candidates will run against Pelosi & The Creep.
1
Nothing that Donald Trump says or does has ever surprised me or will ever surprise me. He has shown time and again that he is an absolute ignoramus, a vulgarian, vindictive and petty man, holding an office far above his innate abilities. He is a bigoted racist who could never accept that there are more intelligent and capable persons of color than him that could challenging him on every issue. He is once more doing his favorite thing: delegitimizing people of color whom he perceives as challenging him or any other white person. What he is doing in the process is revealing the total bankruptcy and abdication of the Republican party; a party run and sustained by a propaganda news network . As far as fascist bosses are concerned, Donald Trump is the least capable of them. What he is only good at is managing the news cycle. Just wait, he has not hit rock bottom; there is plenty more to go. What he revealed to me is what I have always suspected all along: that there are 35 to 40 % of Americans who associate "American-ness" with "white-ness". Only future demographics will change this persective.
4
It ain't Trump who is the problem. It is the tens of millions of "Archie Bunker" racists who adore racism and hate. You act like one man pushes tens of millions of votes. No. It is every white Republican, every one of them, is a hateful racist.
7
Anyone opposing Trump will need to wear their ultra-patriotic, nationalistic hat and whatever other hat they need. They'll have to beat him at HIS game, because President Crazy-Like-a-Fox has changed all the rules. What a horrible man.
6
During World War 1 approximately 15,000 German Jews fought for Germany and the Kaiser. It took the unification of all the German principalities in 1871 to finally give German Jews equal rights under the law and—we know what happened when the NAZIS came to power in 1933! My question is this: Why isn’t the President’s daughter (Jewish) and son-in-law (Jewish) coming down hard on the president for his despicable act of insulting representatives of the United States Congress?! Despicable in the sense that the dehumanization of fellow citizens based on racial and eugenics grounds, can and does have deep repercussions within a society. We know this. We fought against this. And now it has become a part of us! And we do almost nothing about it! Even those who should know better.
4
Possible answer re Ivanka/Jared: They care more about the power, the recognition, and the family fortune than any moral or religious tenets of their (or any) religion.
8
"The circulation of the NYTs is 571,500 Daily, 1,087,500 Sunday, 2,900,000 Digital-only (as of May (Sunday) / November (daily) 2016 / (Digital-only) Aug 2018)."
I'm expecting at least a 1-million comments adding to the chorus denouncing the man (the imposter president) who spoke in "White Supremacist" in his vile racist tweet against his own citizens!
trump has fully reshaped his shaming school-yard bully into a full-blown, actively practicing dictator who is fomenting the masses to arm themselves against half of its own population: you and me.
This is old autocratic history and the president is now following the "The Autocrats Takeover Playbook" to the letter. And Mitch McConnell is complicit!
9
@LivingWithInterest
Sorry not just McConnell but every and all republicans who sit by silent on everything this man has done to undermine democracy.
6
The tweet may be xenophobic but it is not racist. Quite simply, these people hate America and when their foolish or racist comments are called out, they whine.
4
I bet Trump never told Jeffrey Epstein to go back where he came from.
5
Donald Trump tweets to his base, and he knows he can get by with it. While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, he secretly knows that they can be led around like bulls with nose rings - only instead of bull rings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants.
If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of us all. When we understand all this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
Three years later and we all still jump from the muck coming from the same vapid, sewer mouth. Come on people.
4
Another new low...
How can people vote for someone that openly racist?!
Everybody please wake up and vote for Democrats and the sake of our democracy!
3
Possible answer to your question: Because Trump supporters share his (lack of) any moral sensibility and his hateful view of “others” not like “us.”
What is perhaps more surprising is that the so-called base doesn’t realize that he doesn’t much like them either! He will continue to use them, however, as long as they want to follow him—one hopes right over a 2020 cliff.
4
What I need Democrats to say: Donald Trump is a cancer on this nation and a disgrace to our history and ideals. He is un-American. He cozies up to our enemies who would like to destroy us and he divides us at home by vilifying the press, immigrants, women, people of color, and anyone he perceives as different. He is a liar who has damaged relations with our allies and made the world less safe. We are going to initiate impeachment hearings to remove him from office. Anyone who stands with him stands against America and that includes the Republican Party.
5
You identify with race, gender, age, titles....only when you have no “substance” of your own.
4
It seems that these congresswoman are OK with denigrating Jews by their misinformation (comparing detention centers to concentration camps) and their racists views of so-called Zionists but it's not OK for them to receive it back. This all reminds me of my formative years growing up on the streets of NYC in a "diverse" neighborhood. I was called "Dirty Jew" as young as 5. My no means do I condone Trump's remarks. It just seems that all of them are still playing in the gutter.
9
It’s easy for me to see this man saying the same thing to some young woman as she leaves his goudy bedroom
A country which is build by immigrants, it is sad and cringe worthy to see president of this great nation being so openly racist. Maybe the Anthem should now say "God Save America".
3
This article is completely misleading. Although President Trump fails to keep things above board with his antics, he went after these congresswomen for their radical views, not their skin color. NYT is trying to blur the facts.
5
Such a comment by Trump shows his incredible ignorance, and coarseness. It also is so dangerous. Impeach him Pelosi--do your job.
6
@Mass independent
Unfortunately, Pelosi's job is, foremost, to uphold the hegemony of the oligarchy rather than risk making waves that would dry up the source of wealth for her and the rest of the ruling class.
The lack of Republican outrage over these comments is hard to believe, and at the same time, totally expected. None of the Republican leadership will stand up for their colleagues? Really? How can they possibly look themselves in the mirror. Is there any line that can't be crossed? Mind boggling, pathetic and frightening.
13
Just curious..... Why is he still allowed a Twitter account?
16
Trump's base loves these tweets and feel empowered by them. This is ignorance here as they have no idea of history are absent of empathy and do not understand where this can take the country. It makes a really sad statement of the collective intelligence of his supporters. And what was once the Republican Party remain silent. These people are a disgrace.
9
Based on Trump’s tweet, Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, should go back to Tapei, Taiwan. She was born there and she is USA’s Secretary of Transportation. I guess McConnell endorses that since he is mute about Trump’s racist comments.
12
@Beatriz
As well as Trump, silent about the origins of his own wife.
2
Oh look, Nancy Pelosi enabling even more Trump garbage.
It sure would be nifty if she'd do some oversight, or god forbid being impeachment hearings, rather than clearing the way for him to launch new racist lines of attack against her fellow Democrats.
2
Trump’s family is German. Why doesn’t he go back to where he came from. He causes Americans more pain with his overt racism than any young congresswoman ever could.
4
It is not this racist screed from Donald Trump that upsets me. That was to be expected. It is the number of people in our country who agree with it that appals me.
10
Ugh!... another assault on the respectability of the nation. ...enough already!
5
This man only brings shame to this country. It is past time to remove him from office. The only thing that saves us from his criminality is his incompetence.
7
If we were in junior high the best advice would be to ignore everything this insecure punk says. EVERYTHING. But how do we deal with an adolescent bully who somehow is the leader of the free world?
Please everyone, get engaged and VOTE!
6
Yet another distraction from the issues trump faces and what we should be focusing upon: obstruction of justice, financial malfeasance, sexual assault, crimes against humanity. Trump tosses his insults and rants to win States that might otherwise vote against him. That’s what this is all about. He is, at the core, despicable
8
If Donald Trump makes these four radical socialists the face of the Democrats, he will win in a landslide, Their antisemitic and anti-American remarks are indefensible and have nothing to do with race.
6
@Hank
Everything I've heard from "these four radical socialists" (only one actually is a socialist) is true.
I've heard nothing anti-Semitic or anti-American.
The America you refer to is the lily-white, far-right, other-hating, fundamentalist neo-fascism of the John Birch Society.
I doubt that the majority of voters will agree with you.
2
I’m an immigrant, a naturalized US citizen and politically moderate. I don’t have any real affection for the four congresswomen Trump attacked today.
But I’ve always thought the greatest thing you could do as an American is be critical of the government and the President. A lot of the world doesn’t have that right. Trump’s threatening language today and the complicit silence from the GOP has pretty much sealed the deal for me. I will never vote Republican. They don’t represent the America I want to live in.
And Donald, I immigrated to the US because I wanted to live in a country where I was free to criticize its leaders without fear of retribution. If you don’t like that, perhaps you should consider leaving.
357
@Paul Thank you for your comments.
26
Trump knows what he is doing. He is reinforcing the hateful and racist ideology of his base. THIS is exactly what his supporters want to hear.
I am truly fearful for the future of our country.
15
Donald Trump is who he is Ladies and Gentlemen. Where have you all been since 2011? I ask rhetorically. The same man who launched a blatant racist attack on the first African American president of this country; considering this country's history. 62 million Americans then went ahead and rewarded him with the presidency of the United States. As a black American this is no suprise. we are no longer shocked. please stop the fake outrage. Donald Trump is not the problem. The 62 million Americans who figured he was fit to be president are the folks who scare the lights out of we minorities.
15
Trump should go back to where he came from. Germany. I suggest he’d feel comfortable in the 1930’s and early 40’s.
13
We are suffering through the turmoil of a Trump presidency only because of the electoral college system. We will never be a true democracy as long as such a stupid and undemocratic system is in place. It might have been necessary to bring the small states into the union but has long outlived any practical purpose.
13
Trump will be in a bind if he’s ever obliged to “go back” to Germany, where his paternal grandparents came from, or to Scotland, where his mother came from. They’ll probably turn him away, no matter how much loot he’s absconded with.
8
John Dean once told Nixon about a cancer on his presidency.
Trump is a cancer today.
In 2020 it must be excised by the voters.
13
This coming from the man whose mother was from Scotland...?!
6
Dems are going to do it again. A repeat of 2016. They have learned nothing. I watched the debate, all hands raised for free healthcare even for those breaking the law to get into this country. Seriously folks? You really believe that's going to win you votes in 2020? Hardly. By lamenting the fact that that potus is a bigot (we knew that already) you've fallen into his trap. Keep playing identity politics because that worked out so well previously. Ignore this sad man and his daily tweets and get to the matters at hand. And winning more votes won't get you the presidency you need the EC as well. So sad that you've learned nothing in nearly 3 years now.
16
@Margo Channing you are so right! I watched the debate too and was saddened by the choices.
5
@Margo Channing
You object to universal healthcare and think that that proposal will lose votes?
When Obama proposed it in 2008 it helped to win him the presidency.
If opposition to that makes the majority vote for Trump then the country truly will be lost to fascism.
1
Will the senate Republicans continue to stand behind a person who seems intent on stoking a race war? What will it take before enough Senate Republicans call Nancy to begin the inevitable process to remove this racist from office? Does he have to grab McConnel's wife by the you know what to cross the line, or will the Senate Republicans wait until Trump suspends the constitution and declares martial law to build his wall. The electorate is now poisonously anti immigration of any kind except white. How does McConnel and Trump get away with the fact both are married to immigrants and at least one of them is not white? We are in trouble as a country unless we can make it to 2020 without a civil war and Putin out his interference machine behind a democrat in 2020.
8
Not much of a geographer, our Donald. Someday his picture will appear in a slang dictionary next to the term "self-own."
1
And enabled by the as-usual gutless Republican caucus.
7
Trump isn’t racist, conservative, or religious. He’s a grifter opportunist that plays to his racist, conservative religious base. Simple!
8
Exactly right.
1
I’m not a fan, but please.. let’s try to stay on track...
It’s President Trump, no longer President Obama. At this point, may I suggest therapy?
2
Blatant proof of his absolute racism provided publicly, Donald Trump must be removed from the office of President of the United States!
5
Have the Democratic presidential candidates called some of the Squad members' disparaging statement about America, Jews or Representative Tlaib’s calling President Trump a mother-explative, crude and repulsive? NO. Has the NY Times? Not to my knowledge.
4
All Trump cares about is making sure his face is on the front page of every paper, and website. The media continues to provide this for him hourly. He feeds on this. And, once again the NYT runs its daily hit piece on his most likely opponent, Biden. What's not to like in Trump's world?
2
Absolutely disgusting and I’m at a loss for words. Please America, vote this madman out at the next election, before all that is good about your country is eroded to the point it fits on the head of a pin.
6
Well....We all know that he is an impaired walking thing... among so many others...
Expect the lowest of the lowest...
2
As a white immigrant and was told many times to go home if I didn't like it. I never thought this could/would happen in the US.
3
Just by reading these comments makes me realize why Trump got elected in the first place: you are all crazy. You played right into Trumps small hands. This is what he wanted! To get you all worked up.
Im sure this has given most of are commentators a reason to live another day. They are so Consumed by Trump and their hatred for him it's pathetic.
Have a lovely time when Trump get elected.
7
If I made these comments at my work place I would be fired.
4
OK, Mr. Trump, will you also 'Go back to the country you came from'? If so, is that Sweden, as your family claimed when they changed the family name to Trump because they were afraid of being thought to be Germans? (After all, aren't you a 'Freshman President'?)
Or did you mean that AOC should go back to the same city you grew up in? Staten Island or Queens, same city. Maybe that explains why you and she are so alike. That NYC Attitude. Yeah, I'm talkin-ta You!
5
Donald Trump is a racist; he has demonstrated that again and again. But he does not stand alone in his racism; the entire Republican Party stands with him. With the exception of (former) Republican Congressman Amash, not. one. Republican. has. condemned. Trump's. latest. racist. tweets.
Not one.
Is this really what you believe and support, Republicans? Is this who you are, Senators Collins, Murkowski, Romney, Sasse, Grassley, Graham, Alexander, Capito, Cruz and Scott?
You need to answer this question; it's not a rhetorical one.
9
These comments, coming from an American President, are Hitleresque. He has really crossed a line this time, and I would find it hard to imagine how any “Republicans”, whatever that word means these days, could possibly still support him, after this.
6
A tweet the President wrote just to distract Americans who are too lazy to read the news. It will get him points believe me, and no matter how ignorant his tweet was HE loves it.
3
The GOP's immigration reform actions were NOT designed to make us "get rich" ... ?
Well that's new.
When Obama managed to get bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform through the Senate in 2013 (and with a super-majority of 68 votes), WHO refused to even allow a vote on it? The GOP House.
The bill would have TRIPLED the number of border patrol agents at the southern border (= adding 40,000 BP agents), installed e-verify and done some much more.
But while Democrats were trying to protect the southern border, mister Trump-I'll-never-build-that-wall was exploiting illegal aliens at his luxury Mar-o-Lago resort.
So of course the GOP will never pass immigration reform nor strengthen the southern border. Why would they? In their eyes, it would only cost them money, and as money is their God, they'll always refuse to do the right thing.
Refusing to protect the border and to install e-verify, which would have punished people like Trump when they try to make a profit from exploiting undocumented, desperate, poor people, that IS their concept of "kindness".
The GOP lost its moral compass long before Trump came along already.
19
We should stand in solidarity with these Congresswoman.
Trump made America a country filled with hate and division.
Americans never before looked down at by the people around the world as we are right now. I loathe Trump and all his supporters.
10
If Trump cannot respect and represent all of our citizens, it's time for impeachment. It's not an option. He works for the American people - all of them. And, it is Trump who should go home. He doesn't have the emotional intelligence to serve or lead.
14
It is obvious, of course, that all the four Congresswomen are citizens of the United States, and that only Congresswoman Omar is foreign born. It is also obvious that Mr. Trump's ineptly stated polemic was directed not to their "color", or their sex, or their race, but to their concerted attitude and political posture, which stress just those "identities'' and not their individuality or their local representative elected function.
They take international positions, not excluding eliminative antisemitism, and all take racially and sexually based extreme domestic political positions, to the detriment of the political party to which they nominally belong.
They systematically denigrate the American political process which has elevated them, in the face of their race, sex, and color, and one repeatedly approves the violent positions advocated by the rulers of her place of family origin, a racist, religiously biased, sexually biased, dictatorial regime. Another recalls her detention in a true prison camp by a country of "color."
They, in fact, as do all legitimate immigrants, and their American born descendants, receive protection and opportunity unparalleled elsewhere and at any time.
They make no statement critical of their countries of family origin.
Mr. Trump was never suited to the position for which he was elected. Neither are this group.
9
With what I have witnessed since trump has become president and in fact ever since trump and his family soiled the great state of New York, it becomes obvious that the whole Trump Clan should have been an abortion. The World would have been such a better place. Our Country was built on immigration. No one should forget that. Everyone following these fiends shows their ignorance to what has made this a truly great country. If he who should not be named, has pointed these Congresswomen, then in reality, he fears them. I applaud them all for their courage. Vote blue everyone in 2020.
7
There is without a doubt a percentage of his base that will be in agreement with him on this, but surely no decent person, regardless of political party, will vote for him now. This schoolyard racial taunt has to be the last straw for anyone Christian and moral. To accept this kind of racism in exchange for a few points on the Dow Jones? Who could possibly think that's a compromise worth making?
5
@Ms. Pea Registered Dem here................perhaps the party should take heed and end the identity politics for a start. Catering to a group of people who continue to break the law to get here and fight for them is the same thing that Clinton did in 2016 and that didn't end well did it? Tend to the important matters at hand, stand united with Leader Pelosi. They will lose and lose big if they continue down the path of division within the party. AOC needs to pay attention, learn the ropes and glean what she can. Her ideas are not the way the country should be headed. In order to win the senate and the presidency you need to be united and that includes being willing to work with others and including those who work and reside in the states that matter, WI, PA, and all other states Clinton lost. Winning the popular vote means absolutely nothing if you don't' win the EC votes as well.
The main priority should be in getting back the voter who voted for Obama (2X) that went over to bone spurs camp. Not reacting to this little man's tirades.
Trump simply cannot help himself - narcissist to the core. The Democrats are engaging in a circular firing squad, and when it’s best to keep his comments to himself and let this play out, he interjects himself and once again says something vile and inappropriate.
I don’t like the politics or bluster of the four congresswomen (though I believe that some of their core ideas at a high level on the environment and income equality are correct), but they have a right to speak their minds, and they were duly elected to the US Congress.
We desperately need a third party - counting Twitter followers, striking and striking back on Twitter, and raising the level of inflammatory rhetoric is not governance.
2
@Mark Arizmendi
A third party will never win and it cost Clinton the election. Jill Stein. Really?
Trump's words are the kinds of things my ancestors heard, occasionally, in the late 1940's when they fled war-ravaged Europe for a better life in North America. Even then, the large majority of people regarded these words as the most vile kind of bigotry. Now, here we are about to reach the third decade of the 21st century and we have president of the United States spewing this bilious racism for cynical, partisan political gain. I can't begin to express how depressing it is.
8
Trump is merely following orders. Putin’s stated goal is to stoke racial division in America and reduce our power and influence in the world. To weaken the Dems by making sure they and their followers fight amongst themselves. Trump will win the next election by weakening his adversary. He always lies and throws red meat when it suits him, both to his followers and his enemies. He still has NEVER criticized his mentor Vlad.
5
...and we need many, many more Americans to run for the Senate -- no matter where they or their parents "came from".
4
Republicans are always claiming that they support legal immigration. Rep. Ilhan Omar came legally to the US with her family as a young girl. She has been a citizen since she was 17. She has taken an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States, an oath that she, unlike Trump, apparently takes seriously. She does not deserve to be told to “go back” to anywhere any more than any other citizen. And she deserves respect as a woman and as a member of Congress.
10
If only Trump could run the country as well as he seems to command the MSM. All he needs to do is utter some absurdity, and the MSM goes to work reporting the nonsense, and parsing what it really means, etc. Meanwhile, real news, achievements, successes, upsets, etc. from real life go unreported because the MSM can't help catering to the hateful things that white wealthy men say.
4
it reminds me of the very next day after Trump was elected. At my granddaughter's school where she attended 3rd grade, two white boys went up to every child of brown skin during recess and told them they were going to be deported, even though all the brown skinned children were american citizens, not recent immigrants and most came from multiple generations of american citizens. When the parents of those two boys were contacted, they saw nothing wrong with the behavior and defended their children's first amendment rights. That confirmed to our family that America had changed for the worse.
9
These 4 were elected because of their ethnicity, not in spite of it. And they serve on that basis.
So they should not be surprised when their ethnicity is used against them.
7
@David Weber
Their identity is all they talk about and always in the context of victimhood.
4
What a colossal error! It will follow and mark him and his supporters as xenophobes throughout the next election cycle.
Not smart, Mr. President.
2
There is no other response to these Tweets than to ask for Trump's resignation. It should also apply to Pence who is complicit and enacts his policies as well as his Cabinet. Trump represents the laws & values of the United States despite the fact he refuses, obstructs & defies. We have employment laws against sexual & racial discrimination and harassment. Trump works for and is paid by US taxpayers. It is his job to work with Congress. His Tweets would get any employee fired if for no other reason that such rhetoric might cause a lawsuit. Trump's thinking & tweets are morally incomprehensible. Unfortunately, Trump's sociopathological thinking does not believe he has a responsibility to even represent our Employment & Labor Laws or the basic tenants of our Constitution. Perhaps losing his Labor Secretary influenced his reaction. We are not the United States of America. If any leaders believe Trump can negotiate with the world on any issue, your thinking is more irrational than Trump's. Why would any country have any trust to negotiate with a leader who's goal is to divide & disrupt his own country? He is unwilling and incapable of creating a United nation. America is truly ugly. The Republicans' silence is deafening. The Democrats must start screaming for his resignation and not stop. Perhaps it will save the cost of an Impeachment. The only place for Trump is behind one of the cages he has provided for migrants. He thinks they are very fine.
4
Often ,the President may be coarse in his views but his intention is clearly the way most Americans feel ,even though some do not express as crudely as the President may at times. The congress persons he has targeted have been beacons for anti American hatred because of their outspoken comments against the US government ,laws and constitution ,which nearly all Americans support except them.They speak ,like some undocumented immigrants do about how terrible our country is ,yet they're constantly breaking the law to enter and to not assimilate.Even the Democrats have refused to tolerate the further leftist socialist views derived from failures in countries with like socialist regimes.This President is the only one with enough courage and truth to confront this scourge from far leftist politicians who wish to destroy American values.
6
@Alan Wrong, trump was given a plan by the Democrats last year to fix immigration problems and trump approved in until the Democrats left the White House
@Alan Einstoss
Yes, the president is saying, albeit quite crudely, what millions of Americans feel about those leftist democrats.
2
I watched my Mother come down with Dementia, and I can only say to the country, watch Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is showing the country in real time, in tweets and public comments, text book symptoms of Dementia in the making; to ignore it, is at our countries peril.
4
These women have constantly attacked Trump. They also attack Democrats who dare to differ with their views. Their actions must be embraced by the voters. Everyone likes them, don’t they?
8
Black Americans were told this the moment after slavery was abolished. They were told to leave the country their free labor built and they helped to defend. Ships were even built and voyages made to take some to Liberia and there was anger that more didn't leave the country they built, were born in and often had ancestral ties to due to Indigenous ancestry.
Black Americans have been told this non stop for a very long time and often it was stated publicly. Yet now suddenly it's so shocking? The hypocrisy is the real issue and why I can't stand democrats anymore. Many of the same people upset over this also told Black people to just get over it many times and still do.
1
You have to notice the timing of the Trump's tweets: they came right after the Times started attacks on those Congresswomen and the party got ready to extinguish the Squad. Trump doesn't want the foursome to disappear, he wants to keep them as very useful for him target. He's a pure evil.
5
In this Democratic dustup, Trump reminds me of the Irishman, who, coming upon two of his countrymen busily engaged in fisticuffs, asked, "Is this a private fight or can anyone join?"
2
I can't help thinking how easy it is for Mr. Trump to "forget" that his family originally came here from Germany.
2
Remember the Republican's uproar over Obama saluting with a coffee cup in his hand?
How quaint.
6
Despite all his craziness, corruption, immorality, deceitfulness, misogyny, total and utter incompetence and buffoonery, the absolutely singular reason he has the support he does (and why he could very likely get re-elected), is due to the sole issue of race and immigration. That's it. That simple. This is America. He knows this. He has only one card in his hand, and he's playing it.
6
Three of the congesswomen come from that country that Trump was describing.
3
@Sonomaman
And Trump comes from Ireland.
Can you imagine Obama attacking NOT Republicans' policies, but all of a sudden start tweeting that Trump should go back to Ireland ... ?
The GOP only needs racism because they're so afraid to have a debate about substance.
1
What I would like to know is just when do our elected representatives get the guts to stand up and finally say...enough.
When do the American people get the guts to support getting rid of this self-interest bag of embarrassment?
Our country is better than this. Or used to be. Or maybe we were not. But it is high time to cleanup this mess. And really make America, great again.
8
Trump’s comments are nasty xenophobic
slurs and are in his birthism tradition.
They are prejudiced hateful demagoguery
worthy of fascists leaders of the 1930s, George Wallace and white nationalists like the Klu Klux Klan.
Trump has learned nothing from his previous inappropriate comments about Charlottesville.
He will stoop to any low level to attempt to rile up his base and divide our country for what he thinks is his political benefit.
Enough already. He needs to be impeached and thrown out of office by the American voters who should reject his contemptible comments along with the Republican Party that meekly supports his policies and tolerates his demagoguery.
9
I sure wish the president would consider taking his own advice. Germany’s loss would be our gain, so to speak. Maybe he will in 2020, head between his legs, if he loses the election.
What delicious thoughts!
7
Trump's racism is only outdone by the Republican party. They have worked hard to gerrymander voting districts in order to disenfranchise people of color. In 2016 they were successful in seizing the reins of the entire federal government, with the end game of ending health care for millions and giving the oligarchs new power and riches. Trump is their puppet, he says what they think.
5
Not to take away from how abhorrent these comments are, but along that line, seems like a possible Trump distract play. Hope NYT continues to investigate the connection between Trump and Epstein for any knowledge of the sexual exploitation and trafficking of underage girls, children as they were.
4
"America Tells Trump to Go Back to Where He Came From"...this is the headline I'd like to see when the polls close on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.
8
I'm a racist and I agree with Trump, except I don't think he is going back far enough. I don't think just being born here really cuts it. If your parents weren't born here, get out. In fact, if your grandparents weren't born here, get out. But why stop there? If your relatives arrived on the Mayflower, that is still not good enough. Let's make it simple. All people of European descent, go back to where you came from. My guess is that the American Indians, from whom we originally stole this country, would easily improve on how it is being run today.
4
Trump’s grandfather was German, his mother was Scottish; let’s see if Germany and the UK would take him back?
8
If I were to move to France, not learn the language, take every handout possible, I would hope the French would tell me to go home. Enough-go home. We are not a dumping ground for illiterate, obese wal-mart shoppers.
4
Please.....someone wake me up from this nightmare!!
The thought of four more years of a President stuck in the body of a school yard bully scares the bejeebers out of me! And I say this as someone who most would consider pretty middle America minded.
5
Your headline is not an accurate restatement of what the President said in the tweet, A species of fake news.
1
@Truthbeknown
It is basically what he said.
Trump: “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world,..”
It is not news that Trump speaks the language of racism, which was obvious from the birther days, before he began spewing it in the house that Lincoln once occupied. What will be news is if his poll numbers don't drop. That 40-45% may well reflect the racist population of the US. I hope not. After all that struggle, through Jim Crow, and busing, and Selma, voting rights, MLK and finally Obama. After all that, nearly half the public still acts like nothing has changed from since the antebellum south. Well, maybe Trump should go back to where he came from, which is some Brooklyn sewer.
3
I wonder how Mitch McConnell would feel or think about Trump's comments if he said that about his wife?
9
You refer to "a lowest-rung slur" that "was largely regarded as beyond the pale."
But not by the Republicans. Have you been listening to the Republicans of the last 20 years, and their friends at Fox?
Only a tiny percentage of GOP members of Congress and Senators were willing to speak out against Trump's post-Charlottesville remarks calling Neo-Nazis good people. The rest were either in agreement with him, or afraid of alienating a base that loves Trump, or neo-Nazi's, or both.
There is no "beyond the pale" in the Republican Party today.... and don't wait for them to do the right thing.
7
You know who has to go back- it’s Trump! He needs to go back to Trump Tower and reign over his crooked real estate empire.He was operating below a level of competence there-in the OvalOffice He is a dangerous and unmitigated disaster!
3
Donald Trump "originally" came from Germany. Need we say more? In his worldview, no.
1
This tweet is a foreshadowing of the 2020 presidential campaign. Trump is willing to make it a race war and burn down the country. White nationalists, rejoice.
6
Trump is a Russian asset, wittingly or unwittingly.
2
What if they’re from the Yugoslav republic of Slovenia? Does that count?
3
Not a day without multiple impeachable offenses!
When do Dems think it is enough to throw the book at him?
5
Worst - the millions who agree with him who
up till now did not shout out to the world
their hatred now have a green light.
I fear for your nation.
5
President Trump says that four Congress women whom he does not like “came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world.”
Well, three of them do.
They come from the country of which Donald Trump is president.
3
Note how the Republicans in Congress did not comment. Did they agree or too fearful to comment. I can hear their knees knocking.
4
Of course, there will soon be the nut jobs claiming that trump was actually trying to heal the democratic rift by attacking "the squad", fabricating proof of his "genius".
1
The person who needs to go back home is the President. And that means Queens, NOT Manhattan. They don’t want him there.
To anyone asking why Republicans are silent, kindly allow me to hazard a guess:
They agree with Trump’s blatant racism.
Because they too, are racists.
And Trump shouts in twitter what they can’t say in public.
4
What Trump is saying is anti constitutional. He probably has never read the constitution himself.
And he is pulling half the nation with a perverse ideology that does not represent either the history nor the ideas of the country.
Uneducated poor people who have never read the constitution and don't know history.
He should be impeached before he creates a real violent mess in this country or even the world.
Now this is getting really seriously grave .
1
Instead of fanning the flames of "racism," why not discuss the point that these freshman congresspersons have little knowledge about how to fix things or what has worked well to fix the problems they put forward. Query them on how well their ideas have worked - where, when - the cost and who paid for it. Real journalism!
2
It takes a form of mendacity of the most malicious sort to utter these word to anyone in the USA, let alone to elected members of the United States Congress. I never could’ve imagined that a US President, of all people, would display openly such a vile, hateful, raw racist bigotry.
Mr Trump is acting the part of his notion of a President of the USA. He can’t hide the avarice & racism that dictate his shameless self-inflated show.
2
Please don't even mention who was born outside of US and who wasn't. Once you are a citizen of this country, it doesn't matter where you were born. This is your home. This is your country. His comments are deeply insulting to an immigrant like myself.
5
The President seems to have something caught in his throat.
One of these days he'll cough it up.
As nasty as it will be, his supporters will keep on supporting.
Two things:
1. As blatantly exhibited by Trump every day, Republicans are the party of identity politics. According to them, if you're not white, rich, and conservative, you're not a real American.
2. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states Congress shall make no law "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." So, MAGA guys, if you don't like women exercising their constitutional rights, you can go back to the country your ancestors came from. Better yet, get together with your billionaire president, buy an island, and start your own country. You can call it "Snowflake World."
1
Compare Mr. Trump’s actual words (“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done.”) with this article’s headline (“Trump Tells Freshman Congresswomen to Go Back to the Countries They Came From”). One can easily see why people are—or should be—upset with the press these days.
3
@Richard
He was basically telling them to “get out,” which is the same thing. If you don’t see that, you are exhibiting confirmation bias—hearing what you want to hear without understanding it.
1
Trump's paternal grandfather, born in Germany, emigrated to the US - paternal ancestry German.
Ayanna S Pressley , born in Cincinnati, Ohio
Rashida H Tlaib, born in Detroit, Michigan
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , born in Bronx, New York City, New York
Why doesn't Trump therefore 'Go back to where you come from?"
2
Please, whatever happens, don‘t send him back to the country he came from...we‘ve had our share...
4
Did anyone notice that the grammatical construction in this abhorrent tweet was ultra-correct? ("places from which they came.") Even the NYT used the vernacular of "to the countries they came from" in its opening paragraph.
This insulting, racist, and xenophobic smear was probably written by someone other than the ignoramus-in-chief, most likely someone on his own campaign staff for the distinct purpose of stirring things up and grab screaming headlines across the media in order to counter the ICE raids and Epstein stories. It was obviously a very successful ploy, even though it unified the Democratic Party in a way that may have surprised him a bit; therefore, the doubling down last night was necessary to continue making more disgusting headlines.
This kind of invective is also eerily reminiscent of the kind of insults that were thrown around in the late 1960's at anti-war activists, i.e., "Love it or leave it!" After half a century, things have not changed - only the target of the attacks has. The anti-war protesters were right then, and the critics of the current POTUS are right now.
May this be a constant and clear reminder that voting for regime change in the U.S. in 2020 is of paramount importance.
3
I despise Trump and all he stands for but this is a stroke of political genius. He has tricked the D leadership into defending the representatives who least represent the views of the center.
1
Trumps supporters and Republicans don’t even the tweets as racist. All they see is the liberal media putting words in his mouth. So McConnell and the Republicans won’t say anything. Please tell me if I’m wrong.
From what I hear the black community finds these outspoken congresswomen offensive. They are being very silly by being so aggressive. It is a lose, lose. When black voters stay home and offended middle class voters go to the polls Trump will win in 2020.
3
The President clearly knows what his fans want to hear. He is definitely not appealing to the better angels as Abraham Lincoln did. Saddest of all is the fact that he will be re-elected by those who love his racism, misogyny, and kowtowing to authoritarians. O tempora! O mores!
The president is a racist, plain and simple. He is a demagogue, plain and simple. If Americans reelect him, in the face of all this, it will be a sad day for our country, and I fear for a second term, he will have no boundaries on his behavior, not that he has many boundaries now.
2
Is it time to mothball the statue of liberty?
3
It's disgusting that Trump would feel that it's OK to say something like this. But we've learned to expect that from him.
But what's even more disgusting is that almost the entire Republican Party sits in silence, rather than denouncing Trump's words. Where is their moral outrage? After the things that they said about Pres Obama, and the way that they treated them, their silence about Trump demonstrates venal hypocrisy.
As I previously mentioned, I emigrated to Israel in 1993. More after the war in Israel ( we live in TLV) in 2014, but even now (2019), and often more than once daily , as I speak with a pronounced Anglo accent ,I “field’ unwanted daily remarks ( often hostile), such as “ Why( emphasis) are you here? “ or “ Why don’t you go back?”( to where after 28 years?) or “ Leave your family here and just go!”
The feeling of not fully integrating remains after all these years
I call people out
They “ do not get it”( or pretend to be doing me a favor for giving me friendly paternal advice “ Why don’t you go back !”( again in that irritated voice )
I’m going to cut this article out and refer people to it
Trump has no idea how much outrage there is toward him. He can rally every single member of his base and it will not be enough to stop the overthrow of this monster.
Despite growing accustomed to the Presidents weekly "Shouts from the Sewer", one can't help but feel a sense of disgust and feeling immersed in filth. This is what emanates from the White House.
In stark contrast to Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats" whose aim was to uplift a nation in times of hardship, our current leader tries to instill fear in times of prosperity. Just a disgrace.
1
When are you an American citizen? When you obtain American citizenship, or only after several generations? What about the Trumps? Isn't he also the grandchild of migrants?
Okay, sure, this is about dirty politics. Trump is trying to motivate his racist voters. What a president. Well, our Chancellor also makes a lot of mistakes and the right-wing parties are saying she would divide the people, but what Mr. Trump does is really a shame.
These women have targeted and attacked Native American and Black politicians who don't agree with them. They are a nasty bunch on the same level as Trump and he gave them a taste of what they dole out. Again the media needs to come out of their bubble. Many, including those they proclaim to speak for, are not as charmed by them. My guess is they are being groomed by the media as the new generation of Sharptons and Jacksons as the National self appointed spokespersons for certain segments of the population. Now as then it is self opportunism and no criticism allowed.
1
Oh he’s so Presidential. And mature.
1
Although its factually correct only for Rep Omar, I'm not sure his points regarding her are incorrect .. i'm increasingly concerned with her socialist screeds
1
Impeach him, Nancy. And America, vote the Republican party out of existence forever.
2
Ignorant? Sure. But why people are making such a big deal about this boggles my mind. It's gross, but by the same token, the women in question have said equally racist and anti-semitic things. This is really the equivalent of children taunting each other on the schoolyard, and should elicit nothing more than an eye roll.
What I find particularly frustrating is a lack of equivalency. Democrats were rushing to defend Ilhan Omar constant making anti-semitic tropes, but this, THIS is worth front page news! And that notwithstanding, go to any college town and you'll hear people literally say "white people should go back to where they came from" in their stupor of un-nuanced, anti-colonialist nonsense. They'll go on and on about how pristine the country was and pure before whites (which, is considerably more complicated if you know the history), and literally say what Trump just did, albeit directed at whites. And no one will bat an eyelash!
If we're going to make a big deal about this, we should offer equal treatment to all the bigots- Trump, and the ladies in question. In the same way, it should be as problematic to tell whites to "go back to where they came from" as it is to colored people. But that's not how this is. So let the children be children and ignore it- this isn't worth the time and mental energy people are giving it.
1
From what I read on Facebook, many thousands of Americans support him on that. Many did not know that 3 of the congresswomen had been born in the US. It is always a wonder to me how a country with so vast knowledge resources have so many ignorant people.
4
@T. Silva
The reason is quite simple: the tons of laws passed by the GOP and that make sharing (knowledge, healthcare, information, ...) impossible.
Actively increasing the income gap is something that not only right-win Brazilian politicians do ... they do it all over the world.
And Republicans and conservatives, the silent accomplices. Shame on all of them.
8
Every morning as I start my day, I first turn to my gardens to resestablish the connections I rely on for the sustenance I find necessary as I begin to go about a daily life I believe necessary to fulfill my part within the 'Social Contract' I have with everyone else I share my living space with here on planet earth.
And it is the variety within my garden that assists and enables me to address the daily, annual 'give and take' that comes with living as I goe about fulfilling my part in the Social Contract of which I speak.
For without a 'variety' within my garden, there would be a sameness that would stunt the needed, growing awareness that comes with the interactions I encounter dealing with the many, the variety of which I speak, not just one single thing,
And it is no different than the world, with its great variety of inhabitants, I encounter when I leave my garden as I proceed to process the daily needs in my life.
So, with that said, from the great variety I encounter within my garden, to the great variety of different humans I interact with each moment of my life as I attempt to fulfill my part in the 'Social Contract', I know am a better person, a more complete, well rounded individual because of the interactionsi have within this diverse, regenerative process I call 'living'.
2
I know that this will come as a surprise to many here, but the US presidential election is not a popularity contest. It is the raw and undiluted quest for power. Good manners rarely if ever help win such contests.
1
@Frank J Haydn Remember, George W. Bush won because many Americans believed he would be more fun to have a beer with. So yes, popularity does matter.
Everyone should do a gut-check to think about how this relates to Trump -- and that his racist statements are so 'popular.'
1
Trump is writing his own villain for Ghostbusters 3.
Trump 's lineage is from Scotland, or wherever. Mine is also from Scotland and Ireland. I've experienced bullying as a young teen but never had anyone tell me to go back to where I came from because it's always possible Scots or notably the Irish will beat you up. That's why we're still here after all this time. So it's important for the new and young members of Congress to reasonably stand up to someone telling them where to go. The world doesn't regard the weak over time.
Maybe Trump doesn't know the early Americans were from Asia across the Bering Strait, even from China like those Chinese he doesn't like or trust very much. I like the Chinese. They are reverent, mannered and have wickedly funny humor if they know you well enough. Or Inca, Maya, Aztec from places he doesn't regard very much also. I like Native American people. Their long culture within family and for raising their children is impressive.
Don't go away, young members of Congress. Time is on your side. The old will die and whither away and the new will arrive. Aren't you already in the door? Doesn't that tell you something? America is a woven fabric of conflict and resolution, sorting the good from the bad. It takes time. But you are in that time.
2
I want to make 3 points: 1. Trump is successful in eliciting outrage because he crosses the limits of courtesy, he expresses publicly what some people think darkly and never dare to say aloud. He is a representative of the "hidden/or other self " of many.
2. Immigrants are seen as "guests". By birth they were not "fated" to be here. They came voluntary because either they were escaping bad conditions or seeking better ones in whatever areas of life they cared about. So, a modicum of gratitude is expected of them. They have a right to criticize of course, but also an obligation to acknowledge what is good now and in the past. The country's goodness came about by the toil and sacrifice of many previous generations.
3. I guess a return to courtesy and manners would be appropriate to all concerned.
2
Mr, Trump is right .After living in states and learning good things these new kind of politicians who find faults in our system should go back to their country to fix their system .
3
@arish sahani Because there are no faults in our system of government? Because institutional racism and sexism don't exist? It's all unicorns and puppies as far as Trump is concerned, as long as he can distract people from his running roughshod over the Constitution, and funneling working Americans' money -- yours and mine -- to the wealthiest of Americans.
Right. Nothing to see here.
Does it gall you to live in a society where there is supposed to be a social contract? Or where critical thought is still valued by many Americans?
That we have to put up with statements of intolerant rubbish by a POTUS who LOST the popular vote is a travesty.
As congressional representatives, it is their job to be critical of our nation in order to represent the districts that elected them and offer solutions or at least dialogue on issues.
The remark is simply racial in origin if not in intent. Ignorance of such is no less disappointing.
If the president truly had issue with the negative comments these ladies were expressing, a well formed counter argument would have more impact and be less divisive for the conversation and our country.
Once again Trump is baiting the left wing.
He is hoping the left wing takes the bait and starts countering his rhetoric with what he believes to be the ultimate sin; open borders and a lax immigration policy.
4
As the child of an immigrant from a former warzone, I share Congresswoman Omar's dedication to our country and am deeply moved by her words. The United States saved my family. Like her, I hold my rights and responsibilities dear. What could be more American?
"I grew up in an extremely unjust society, and the only thing that made my family excited about coming to the United States was that the United States was supposed to be the country that guaranteed justice to all,” Ms. Omar recently said. “So, I feel it necessary for me to speak about that promise that’s not kept.”"
3
@LZ
Ms. Omar is in no position to tell us how to keep our promises.
1
I think it’s time for all living former Presidents to do a joint PSA condemning the Orange Monster for this particular act. In doing so they can also advocate for reasonable border security with humane treatment of those who are caught crossing illegally. The tone should be designed to let voters know that the country respects and welcomes immigrants but within a legal framework.
4
Dear Amie,
The Case of 'America versus Trump' continues. It is enough to wonder if his parents taught him anything, and some representatives of our younger generation are falling for his idiocies.
There are little Trumps running all over Our Land, and this loud one is reminiscent of a relation of mine, having bullied everyone in his path on his way to a successful career in business, who used to try to push my buttons in my 20s.
Speaker Pelosi is raising her shield with one arm to keep him at bay, while asking four minority congresswomen to stand beside her and hold the fort.
In the meantime, America can ask Germany whether they are willing to take back Trump, and help with their political and state affairs.
Forwarding to you what 'Will of NYC' has contributed of measured good sense to this political forum, and warmest greetings to you et famille as always on this date. Please keep our country in your prayers, while the harvest season of corn is upon us, and the president remains foreign in his country, detrimental to the well-being of the greater majority of Americans.
1
I'm afraid Scotland won't take him. (That is where his mother emigrated from when she was 18 years old. She was an economic refugee.)
1
Trump was hired to distract! Are you distracted yet? He is not setting the agenda or running the country. He is a two bit outsized fake TV personality fully incapable of imposing upon those setting the agenda. He is a showman he knows how to shock & create chaos this is what he does.
Stay focused, know this they ( the clever people running Trump) are using predictive Psychometrics to give him his talking points, do not buy in! Stay focused on creating a future without him.
3
I am an European religious refugee. I waited for FIVE years at the port of entry before I was admitted to the United States. I have no compassion for those who don't want to wait in order to to come here illegally and then complain about the conditions at the border. If they don't like it here, they should go back to their countries.
3
Irregardless of the political incorrectness of his comments, Trump is quite successfully forcing Pelosi to 'unwind' her efforts to place 'daylight' between 'the Squad' and the Democratic Party brand by making any criticism too toxic within their party.
1
It is surreal to think that the electorate and the Senate are willing to continue to follow this horribly hollow and destructive shell of a "man" over the cliff. We have all known for quite sometime what the adjectives are that describe him, including racist.....especially racist. And yet this country seems paralyzed to stop him from destroying us. And make no mistake, if he should win in 2020, he won't need the entire 4 yrs to accomplish it.
3
Trump wants the world to be made over in his own image. Anyone that does not fit his world view should be deported, thrown in jail and be put on some remote island. This is the only way that he can feel safe in his own skin. Such a sad state of affairs. Trump can not handle change, differences of opinion, and people that look different from him.
He only wants to create a safe cocoon filled with people that flatter his ego.
Tipping point is coming. Trump has to go.
3
Trump, not so oddly, criticizes them for criticizing him based on their political interests attacking him, while he plays the same game against them. Please note, for all of the Democratic spin on Pres. Trump’s twitter comments, he never attacks the race or color of the four female Congressional Representatives. Nancy Pelosi and others interpret his remarks as racist. But Trump directed his comments at the Congressional women’s focus. While they criticize his federal immigration policies, they never criticize foreign countries and places associated with corruption, run by people who share their ancestral origins, whom they support. Nancy Pelosi interpreted his twitter comments as “Making America White Again” with her spin on his campaign slogan. Many Americans disagree with her, seeing his remarks as fair political response to his opponents:
Why doesn’t Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, whose family comes from Puerto Rico, not criticize the racist and colorist class division there, as well as the corruption? Why doesn’t Rep. Talib criticize the corrupt Palestinian Authority use of American Aid? Why doesn’t Rep. Omar criticize Somalian government misappropriation of our Aid there? Why doesn’t Ayanna Presley address the daily street shootings in and around Heath Street and Mattapan Square (dubbed by locals as “Murderpan”) in her Roxbury-Dorchester Congressional District? Sure, respond to Trump’s “go back home” tweet with calls for him to do the same. But stop the nonsense that he’s racist.
2
“It is sad to see the occupant of the Oval Office transition from empowering and encouraging racist taunts to actually using them himself,” said Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “If Trump shouted the same thing at a Muslim woman wearing hijab in a Walmart, he might be arrested.”
It just gets uglier and uglier. Left, right and center. Sad, doesn't cut it in terms of how I feel about our country.
In decades to come, study of the Trump presidency will be a large part of history classes. And the children will ask 'how did the citizens stand by and do nothing?'
2
Who could be more worthy of deportation than Mrs. Trump:
1. Survived and thrived in cold war communist Slovenia
2. Was a third tier European fashion model
3. Visited the US on a tourist visa
4. Illegally overstayed the tourist visa
5. Illegally worked as a fashion model
6. Was a nude model
7. Maneuvered to meet an old, real estate millionaire
9. Married same old, real estate millionaire for money
3
"Make America Hate Again"
Where is the Universal outrage? This is not a partisan issue.
5
And just like that we aren't talking about Epstein anymore.
3
Trump is racist, yes, we knew that. I think we need to start looking at the bigger picture, bigger than just the US. Anti-immigrant sentiment has propelled right-wing leaders to power in many countries, not just here.
The people with money have gotten so much control that they have had to create an enemy to distract from the human suffering caused by their profiteering: the the thousands who die each year here because they can't afford healthcare, the catastrophic damage to our ecosystem and health because of pollution, and the consequences of climate breakdown/economic capture which lead to conditions so bad that people choose to emigrate to save their childrens' lives.
This is what is going on and it's only going to get worse with climate change. The right-wing has taken over much of the world and racism/anti-immigrant sentiment is the only way they can keep their victims' anger focused elsewhere.
This is not just one taunt by one unhinged racist president. It's the linchpin of the oligarchs' strategy. This is the driving force behind the anti-immigrant rhetoric. We need to protect immigrants and people of color in this country, of course. But I don't think we'll have success until we attack the root of the problem which is, as usual, money.
If you let Trump dictate the narrative by ignoring questions about economic justice, if you follow his narrative on immigration, you play into his hands. Looking at you media and moderate Democrats.
1
Usual theme, yawn. If Trump speaks it must be racist. He called a murderous gang "animals," and opponents said it was about ethnicity, as if it the thugs were angels. He tries to tone down the rhetoric after Charlottesville by opposing violence, regardless of side. People using violence to stop free speech, even offensive speech, are in the wrong. He asked that athletes be patriotic without reference to race (personally, I could care what players quietly do during the anthem) and his opponents made it about race. It's tactical, reflexive and not credible.
Not that his remarks about Cortez et al didn't seem foolish. He helped unite opponents who were divided - and 3 of the 4 women he was referring to were born here. Even his supporters often agree he's childish and un-Presidential. But he has a point somewhere in there. These congresswomen frequently do seem anti-American and I do not buy that they are merely calling-out racism. They foment it to gain power. And, as so often seems to be the case with them, they turn on their own side in a heart beat. Pelosi (and Biden) probably deserve to get hit by the race card, as they race bait themselves for political gain, but it is bad for the country. And racist itself.
But, maybe Trump's not all that stupid. Once again, he gets the headlines. That's how he won the first time. The media still can't help themselves.
1
I'm an American currently living in France (I've been here just over 2 years). Even from abroad -- maybe even more so -- the US looks like a once-great nation in rapid decline.
Ever since I saw these tweets, I have been on the verge of tears. I'm 58 years old, and I never, EVER could have an imagined words like these coming from the president of the United States. His follow-up tweets were even worse (if that's possible).
On election day 2016, I didn't recognize my country anymore. Each day that has gone by since then, I'm one step further away from believing that the United States is still a democracy of the people, by the people, for the people.
I want every caring American to look at these tweets, read them aloud, and make a pledge: in 2020, we will reset the course of democracy back toward equality for all by dousing this horrific stain on our nation's history and electing a Democrat for president.
1
Who could be more worthy of deportation than Mrs. Trump:
1. Survived and thrived in cold war communist Slovenia
2. Was a third tier European fashion model
3. Visited the US on a tourist visa
4. Illegally overstayed the tourist visa
5. Illegally worked as a fashion model
6. Was a nude model
7. Maneuvered to meet an old, real estate millionaire
9. Married same old, real estate millionaire for money
3
"“Our country rescued Ilhan Omar,” Mr. Carlson said in a broadcast last week. “We didn’t do it to get rich; in fact, it cost us money. We did it because we are kind people. How did Omar respond to the remarkable gift we gave her? She scolded us, and called us names, she showered us with contempt.”
This comment PERFECTLY shows what's wrong with conservatives' concept of "kindness" today.
Kindness, for them, means doing something for someone else where you give money, and in return expect that person to praise you, no matter what you do or say apart from giving that money.
That is not only utterly un-American, it's also a totally immoral definition of kindness.
REAL kindness is based on remembering how you too could have been in the situation another person who's suffering is in today, in other words, it is based on the notion of "common humanity".
And secondly, kindness asks for nothing in return, and does certainly not require "recipients" to give away their constitutional rights - including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom to vote.
As neurological studies have in the meanwhile shown, real acts of kindness boost your own "happiness" brain networks, so the "reward" IS that real kindness makes you a happier and better person.
Finally, study after study has shown that immigrants strongly contributed to the greatness of this country, overall, rather than "stealing its money", as conservatives suggest today.
The GOP has lost its moral compass here...
2
@Ana Luisa
Never had a moral compass. Remember Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, GHWB, GWB, Karl Rove?
1
Trump is obviously trying to push the Democrats to the left, that is why their best response is to reaffirm their allegiance to the United States of America -- and question Trump's.
2
Gad but it's embarrassing to be called out as an American these days...
2
Trump's tweets not only perfectly illustrate the GOP's racism, they also prove once again how weak Republicans are, when it comes to making sure that our democracy is strong and thriving.
Trump himself has Irish roots. So why aren't there any Democrats telling him to go back to Ireland rather than destroying the US, which so "kindly" welcomed his poor and sick, fleeing grandparents?
Because in a democracy, you do NOT wish your political opponents and those with whom you strongly disagree to just go away.
You WELCOME diversity of opinion, because it's exactly what allows us to engage in real, respectful debates. And when it comes to trying to craft our own future, as a people, ONLY those debates can help us avoid mistakes and write the most fact-based and intelligent new laws possible.
By constantly asking his followers to no longer watch or read any newspaper or tv channel that disagrees with his behavior, Trump (merely intensifying what Fox News and the GOP built long before he became a candidate) shows 24/7 how utterly weak the GOP's policy ideas are, as their biggest fear is clearly that their own base would start thinking for themselves, rather than blindly gobble no matter what "alternative fact" of the day that the GOP needs to be able to cling to power.
In the end, however, the truth always prevails ...
1
@Ana Luisa
Would you have encouraged “real,respectful” debates with Joseph Goebbels and his “writers” if you lived back then?
Be careful about “diversity”. It is a vacuous concept the way it is used in the US these days. It invites “relativity” in morality and politics.
Stick to the basics of ethics. Vote for Liz Warren or Bernie Sanders. Avoid Joe Biden at all costs. He is as rubbery as they come but with age his “Young’s Modulus” is not what it used to be.
1
The only thing more horrifying than the president's racist tweets is the collective deafening silence of Congressional Republicans.
3
The fact that I find Trump's comments wholly unsurprising is a matter of great and profound sadness. I no longer hold him accountable; he was elected by people who respect and like him, and he is reaffirmed by their silence in the wake of this latest filthy eruption. We, the people, elected him. All of us. Each one of us who voted for someone else could have done more to keep him away from the Presidency; we are not absolved simply because we pulled the lever for another on election day 2016, or worse, didn't vote at all. And we, the people, must work to put someone else in the Oval Office. It is our fault and it is our responsibility. That is how Democracy works.
2
1. Donald Trump was charged by the US government (Justice Department) to be practicing discrimination at this family’s properties in the 1970s against people of color.
2. Donald Trump promotes a falsehood that President Barack Obama was not a US citizen. This effort was wildly seen as racism.
Deplorable doesn’t characterize himself and his supporters properly...it more like bigotry.
3
When we lived in GA in the early 2000s, somebody spray painted 'Go Back Home' on the side of our home. I informed the neighborhood association and filed a police complaint. When our own POTUS tweets this, where do we turn to and what do we do?!
1
There are scores of tribes that are relishing the extreme irony of the go back to your own countries sentiment.
1
Trump is making great progress in ‘making America hate again’ and, in so doing, making America hated again.
1
Another ironic facet of all this is the thousands that said they would leave the USA if Trump were elected but never did. Also if the USA is so bad why do hundreds of millions want to come here and die trying ?
1
Women of color? That term itself is racist. It's a way to erase the historic racism inflicted on Black and Native American women and pretend everyone with a tan has experienced the same. It's why these four have targeted the seats of Native American and Black American politicians. Let's talk about their racism and intolerance.
I have never seen an article in the NY Times tackling all the nasty racist comments stated against Native and Black Americans. If anything there were attempts to justify them, such as blaming all black people for the crack epidemic while white drug addicts get routine pity articles. The outrage over Trump's statement is only because it was directed at what he perceived as recent immigrants. The left's flavor of the month and desperate hope for future votes because they have lost so many American citizens.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. As a women with Native and Black ancestry I don't consider these 4 to be my friends no matter how much the media tries to portray them as such. They are no different than the tea party on the right and just as dangerous and disingenuous. I also wish they would go back to where they came from, regardless of where that place would be. I left the democratic party a long time ago and these women are just another reason why.
Decades later the real story will come out about who is financing these women and why they get such outsized publicity.
2
What if we heard this from another countries president?
4
What's worse ? misogyny or racism?
Hatred of women in particular even by other women is so entranched and so rarely talked about.
Warren will have problems because she is female... and probably any male Democrat could have won against Trump-- even if Hillary did win...
1
Stay strong and stay focused against this hate monger.
We shall over come.
Again.
2
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "And keep your tired, your poor;
Who cares if they are yearning to breathe free?
Who needs the wretched refuse of your shore?
Don't send the homeless, tempest-tost to me:
There is no lamp beside this darkened door."
2
As Mother Theresa said:
"the problem with you is that you draw your circle of family too small".
3
Nothing from Republicans on this one either? Crickets. Finally!(They think). He’s really going for it. But even more so, their response reflects McConnell’s cynical Twitter strategy. Let Dems indulge Trump. Don’t give attention. Stay focused on the agenda. Win next election. Dems: stay focused. Abhorrent as it is, it eggs us into his megalomaniacal swirl. AOC has it right. Don’t let him think we fear him.
Actually Donald Trump should be going back to his native Kallstad, Germany and start cutting hair for his granddaddy, Freddy, who crossed the Atlantic in 1885. Trumps father was conceived in Germany, that way we can void Trumps birth in USA. Go back to Germany and make Germany great again.
1
Since Trump is not likely to lose in 2020, our only hope of salvation is that he dies as soon as possible. Keep those Big Macs coming.
He who remains silent, agrees.
That Donald Trump is a Bigot and a Racist and an Internet Troll, even the biggest denier has to realize by now. Donald Trump is not the president for all Americans.
I agree with Nancy Pelosi, that impeachment is too good for him, he belongs in jail. But her argument no longer makes sense. If this non-president can continue to disrupt the country and turn people against each other, permanent damage to democracy and common decency will be gone. Start impeachment proceedings now, and show the American people what democracy means.
By being silent and not condemning his behavior and racist expressions openly and immediately, the Republican party shows what it is worth. Even if they abhor his person and how he operates, they don't dare say it openly. He who remains silent agrees. They are his enablers. And that is even worse.
What disturbs me most is the complete silence from any Republican officials..
1
Are there any "new lows" for this ugly man? No. Wait a day and more will arrive.
This is another reminder to vote him from office.
1
This tweet is not a thoughtless blurt from an impulsive id- it is a threat, thinly veiled, which corresponds with Trump’s horrific rhetoric and behavior over the years. We now live under a form of “soft” fascism, but it will get worse unless it is stopped. He is a lying, repulsive demagogue inhabiting the most powerful political position on earth and a clear danger to the nation and the world. His Nuremberg style rallies, his nepotism,his misogyny and racism, his penchant for dictators, his contempt for the press, his denial of climate science, his exploitation of religion, his ruthless disregard for human rights and the rule of law, his indecent pandering to the darkest forces in American history, and his deliberate cruelty are all grounds for impeachment. If Ms. Pelosi (and Senator Schumer) fail to seize the moment and initiate impeachment proceedings, it may be too late to save the country from a hard fascism.
1
Labeling President Trump is a racist is so tiresome. We all know he is not a racist. He just calls a spade, a spade and if you are a minority or " person of color" ( a term I abhor because it is so condescending), you are not treated any differently by him than if you are white. He will confront his critics head-on, regardless of gender or race. That is refreshing. He judges people by the content of their actions and character.
2
Front page news? Really? This is what emboldens him and by putting his trash tweets on the front page, you are only complicit in encouraging him.
3
For 44 years I have lived in my adopted country. Every now and then some ignorant - I guess I will have to say “bad person” instead of using a correct adjective - would tell me to “go back where you came from”. Usually when they found out my name. I could never imagine that we would have a President who would use this phrase.
Will any Trumpers criticize him for this? You know the answer. That’s how low we have come as a country under this man.
Here is one thing about Trumpism that tells you all you need to know: Every one of those ignorant “bad persons” who said that to me is an avid follower of Trump today. And the rest who support him are in their company.
3
The draft dodging birther-in-charge preaches to his choir of sycophants while a powerful young crop of legitimately elected young legislators hack away at his racist underpinnings. He is going down, and a great wind will roar through the halls of Congress to blow away the McConnells and their ilk. May they all spin quickly down to disappear forever in the swamp they have nourished for so long.
1
To be fair, the Trump family DID try to go back to Germany, but they were banished because Trump's grandfather was also a draftdodger, albeit a Bavarian one.
2
4 congresswomen getting more than their share of attention.
Why?
“Newly elected women of color.”
The other “1 percent.”
So loud.
Medicare for All is going nowhere.
Free College is going nowhere.
New Green Stuff is going nowhere.
The New Democrat majority in Congress is going back home to their red districts.
It was all about those Benjamin’s, baby.
2
Censure Trump. Americans cannot accept this. It's not normal.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/trump-should-take-his-own-twitter-advice/593941/?wpisrc=nl_todayworld&wpmm=1 maybe trump should take his own advice. we all know this is a fallout from him losing the opportunity to add the citizenship question to the census. He took on the supreme court thinking he would bend it to his power and command. He lost. So did Barr.
Trump makes me ashamed to be a American.
Republicans have been appealing to false pride and irrational fears of white voters for decades. Discarding subtleties, innuendo, and the winks and nods of the past, President Trump gains some white votes by saying what fearful, hateful, prideful people may be thinking and want to hear.
Trump supporters may be longing for a country of apartheid or one where false nationalistic pride and hate demonstrates fascism. To get there demands rejection of the words and spirit of the Constitution, rejection of democratic ideas, rejection of equal Justice, rejection of humanity, and, ultimately, rejection of their own freedoms, liberties, and rights - those in power oversee an ever-increasing list of those deemed undeserving. It may begin with false notions of racial superiority but distinctions never end. This is how authoritarian autocracy works. This is not how democracy works.
People can pretend to pick and choose ideas and values in a Founding documents - the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution - and claim some while rejecting all the rest. Meaning resides in the whole.
It is a choice to embrace ideas and divisions based on fear and hate of others. It is a choice to fall for propaganda and misinformation that gives a false sense of power to some and real power to a few. Donald Trump does not show courage. He shows his own fear, hate, anger, and vengeance and his rejection of democratic values that demand American courage.
194
@Kathy White, Republicans are merely displaying collectively, faulty human traits, that have repeatedly caused humanity much grief, time and time again, history is witness.
12
Yes, what Trump is saying is outrageous and what the racist Mitch McConnell is doing discriminating against minorities is equally outrageous while his Chinese-lineaged wife Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao is doing to help her father make millions of dollars by having her family members sit in meetings with US Government officials is handing the Democrats ammunition for 2020. But Congresswomen Omar and Ocasio-Cortez are destroying what Trump has handed Democrats. They are bound and determined to help Trump get re-elected and return the House to Republican control. I am not a big fan of Speaker Pelosi, but she is doing all she can to keep the House in Democratic hands.
As a life-long Democrat, I say shame on both Omar and Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of The Squad!!!
2
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s near the former capital of the Confederacy, I used to hear racists proclaim that the problems of America would be solved by sending the descents of slaves back where they came from. Lyndon Johnson knew he was giving up political capital as he pushed for civil rights legislation, and was willing to do so for the long term health of the country he loved. America seemed to make progress for a few decades, as Virginia elected a black governor, America elected a black president, and people of color began to enjoy some opportunities denied to their ancestors. And now a different president has taken a bold lurch back to the 1950s. Spineless and opportunistic do not begin to describe this descent into the fogs that should have been permanently lifted half a century ago.
325
@Michael Cooke: More like he's brought us back to the 1850's with the GOP implicit approval. Sad.
19
Trump being trump and nothing changes. His supporters already know he’s a racist, a liar, a misogynist and cruel. THEY DO NOT CARE. For some of them it is actually the reason they support him. For others, they’d rather see roe v wade and gay marriage overturned at any cost. And for still others, they want the safety net cut and their taxes lowered and if the country goes to hell at least they got theirs. This is the trump coalition. Nothing he does will change anything. More dems will come out in blue states, fewer gop will come out in red states, trump will focus on stoking fears of immigrants and liberals in purple states and Nothing will change. In 2020 he’s going to lose the popular vote by a larger margin but still win every state he won in 2016.
We might as well impeach him and prosecute every possible criminal in his orbit. Yes, yes, this senate will never convict but it doesn’t matter. Every criminal act needs to be on the record. We have to do the right thing regardless of the outcome.
Someday he will be out of office, then he’s fair game. Hopefully there’s a jail cell out there for him to spend his remaining days.
19
Every member of Congress and every cabinet officer should be calling on Donald Trump to apologize. Every. Single. One.
Every business leader in american civil society should be calling on Donald Trump to apologize. Every. Single. One.
Every cultural leader, be they sports hero, movie star, or musician, should be calling on Donald Trump to apologize. Every. Single. One.
Every prominent voice in the news media, be they on-air personalities or print journalists, should STOP, RIGHT NOW, acting like Donald Trump is just another president. Stop asking the same clichéd rhetorical questions like, "what's the president's thinking on this?" "How will the president handle XY or Z?" The president has no thinking. The president will not handle anything. Stop thinking about your media organizations, and your job, first and foremost. You have a voice and a position in society and that comes with responsibility, however out of fashion that may seem. Just because Jeff Zucker makes money off of Donald Trump doesn't mean that you should. So Stop. Use your judgement (like the judgement you learned in elementary school...) and do the right thing. Because every one of you too, EVERY ONE OF YOU, should be calling on Donald Trump to apologize.
Senator Joseph McCarthy was stopped because people of good conscience with power stopped him. Who will stop Donald Trump?
26
@jsomoya Sadly now they are just people with power. The repubs are a stain on this country. Including every and all reps and senators who sit silent and let these things continue to happen.
Well it was interesting to see one of the NYT's picks being insightful. However, based on the other comments it is clear the Democrats still do not understand that President Trump has played them. It is entertaining to observe that so many Democrats (who think they are brilliant) simply do not get it. President Trump will be reelected in 2020.
5
@Jonathan and that makes you what? Happy? Sad? or just satisfied that you were right? Not helpful.
The president of the United States of America is "playing" Americans? Sir. Do you not see a problem with that?
2
@Jonathan
What Democrats show that they "get" here, is that they will strongly reject the cultivation of racism at the highest office.
And they will do so even when America would have lost so much of its greatness that it might make them lose the popular vote - even though for the moment, everything indicates that voters massively reject racism, as Obama won the popular vote twice, Hillary massively won it too, and the Democrats just obtain the biggest voters gap both in the House and Senate in three decades, remember ... ?
In the meanwhile, if you prefer to be "entertained" rather than engage and stand up for what's right, then giving you that option is part of what is still left of America's greatness too, of course ...
I'm done associating with anyone who makes excuses for this man. It is unethical at this point to allow such people access to polite company.
12
What bothers me almost as much as the racism is the utter disregard for democracy. These women were *elected* to represent their constituents. Trump may not like what they have to say, but a majority of those in their districts clearly do. Telling them that they can't provide input on policies is like telling their constituents their opinions don't matter because they elected someone of the wrong color.
11
@olga This comment needs to be shouted from the rooftops. Elected. Constituents. Care. These are not just words on a page, they have deep meaning and significant consequences.
I would take Nixon back in a heartbeat. At least he knew he was flawed.
7
If there is an "immigrant" who has failed to integrate in America, it's Trump.
This German-American hates the American Constitution and has sold his country's national interests to other countries that don't embrace values that are enshrined in the US Constitution. Who is he to tell other people what to say and how to behave?
12
Though trump has no ability to self-reflect, he has a knack for accurately describing himself when insulting others.
When he says the congresswomen came "from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world". he has nailed the situation with his own governance in one pithy phrase.
8
@GBM It’s called projection. A common trait among those with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).
Let's deconstruct the trope. Trump was absolutely correct when he wrote: "...whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world."
Three of these women were born in America and I have to agree that Trump's America is a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world.
The rest is confusing. How can they go back to the place that they are at? It does not make sense. Furthermore, these women are about the business of trying to mitigate the complete and total disaster that is the government in the country of their birth.
Isn't that what the inept and corrupt government is complaining about?
In conclusion, our president has snapped his cap. He's admitted that his government is inept and corrupt, et.al. and he's admitted that these women are trying to do something about it.
So what, exactly, is his problem? Everything he stated is already happening...
8
Dear Nancy Pelosi,
What did you think was going to happen when you do nothing but display pathetic weakness in the face of Trump's challenges? Trump has called your bluff and you are fracturing the party with your breathtaking lack of leadership. It's time to get out of the way and let someone willing to take on Trump take the reins.
Signed, an incredibly disillusioned Democrat.
6
I am disheartened, not so much by the content of Trump's tweets (predictable, unfortunately) but that no one in the Republican party has the intestinal fortitude and moral compass to raise any objections. They have been elected to serve this country....to do that well sometimes that takes courage, a moral compass, and the guts to risk losing re-election. Apparently, the vast majority of the party are indulging their self-interests with no apparent concern that we have an unhinged blatant racist at the wheel that feels free to say harmful and inflammatory rhetoric that is harmful to this country because he knows his own party won't say anything. History (if the world survives long enough to write any) will not treat their cowardly and selfish behaviors lightly.
6
Trump is married to an immigrant. Clearly this is not something he actually believes. It is just a campaign ploy. Add blatant hypocrisy to the man’s many issues.
2
Democrats do indeed understand that they are being baited on immigration and that their strategy on this key issue must be politically cunning. Still, these tweets are a new low for this man, who is also baiting on misogyny, racism and xenophobia. Further, he doesn't care about the millions of Americans who elected these four Congresswomen to represent them in the House- he insulted them, too. Remember that in 2020!
Has Trump told his wife and her parents to return to their home country? And Ivana - has he told her? Who else in his family and administration are from other countries and should now return there?
The man is more despicable than despicable - there are no words that adequately describe him.
8
At this point, a lot of us are starting to wish that we could go back to the countries we came from, even though it was many decades, or even centuries ago that our families left them.
In addition to his lies and other bad behavior, Trump is trashing the whole country with these racist attacks.
4
When will we get tired and bone weary of having our beautiful, precious and irreplaceable country run by an egomaniac, misogynist, and a racist? A man who only wants constant attention and headlines? A man who wants to distract from Mueller no matter what it takes? A man who does not care how he gets attention, who only wants outrage and outcry at any price? It is exhausting and corrosive and destructive to the foundation of the United States. It eats at the foundations like floodwater. It makes everybody outraged and angry and short tempered. It increases hate and rage and incidents of racism. It sets everybodies nerves on edge. It makes the days full of anger, frustration and fear of uncertainty. It is all so unnecessary, excessive, and irresponsible to continue to support this insane situation. Just say No More! We Want Sanity in Our Leaders! Rise up and vote him out of our lives! Out of our bedrooms! Out of our faces and ears and minds! Enough Already.
2
Republicans hate these four women than anybody else.
No day goes by without Fox News not attacking at least one of these women.
Yet, Trump put right-wing democrats (who love to be considered moderates) in a bad situation.
He is indeed very smart.
I imagine his lack of decorum is just his conscious shtick from his TV days and beyond, and the taking of the offensive as opposed to the gentlemanly behavior of past Republican leaders who patiently withstood the vitriolic hate and insults of the liberal media. No more says President Trump--as he throws it at the liberal press with full force, sometimes only demeaning, sometimes brashly insulting-- so there he might say A strategy for sure.
President Trump is not a racist--ask Larry King or Geraldo Rivera. The news for pay outlets mostly swing wide to the left and continually push for the Black vote--Trump is a racist--not at all.
But President Trump certainly knows how to hit a nerve.
He is a very smart man.
4
It's not what you say, it's how you say it. Liberals have mastered the art of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory with their whiny, nasal, self righteous, and self actualizing tone.
AOC is right about 80 percent of what she says. It's not what she says, it's how she says it, in the tone of the college freshman home for summer vacation who has found the answer to the world's problems in her Che reader.
If progressives would learn to express some pragmatic humility and stop with their condescending tone and self referential need to 'change the world', they'd defeat Trump easily and could begin to make some real and lasting changes.
4
This hate is the new typical for Trump..
The fact that no decent Republican is left to speak up is the real tragedy..
2
As an American who us now abroad, I am beyond shock and disappointment that This is our President. Ignorant of the people he is supposed to serve, divisive and ready to do anything to continue his personal agenda. Who in the US part if North America, everyone except for the Native Americans (who predated everyone else) all other people in US originally “got off the boat” at one point or another. So Mr. President would you tell your family who also came from somewhere else to go back to their country?!! What if they disagreed with you, would you tell them then?...Racism and purposeful ignorance are your weapons of choice. Only likeminded people will follow.
1
I was told those exact same words, “go back to your country”, in front of my own house, by my driveway, in a town that I practically grew up in, in an uber “liberal” state, by a total stranger who was passing by our neighborhood. Living proof that these are not just plain, empty words. These words mean something to certain people.
3
This is hate speech. What is Twitter going to do about it?
4
Once again Donald Trump stirs up a controversy on a day when he’s doing something else
reprehensible - the ICE raids across the country.
2
I agree with another reader below. Trump is ignorant but not stupid. He knows this will gin up his base, virtually guaranteeing him another four years. And, with the surgically-precise gerrymandering the GOP has engineered for the past 20 years, they have 2020 locked up.
I hated to believe that we've become a nation of bigots and ignoramuses. But, a personal experience this weekend has burnished this opinion in my mind. While in an ER this weekend, the individual taking my blood sample began discussing politics. Before I knew it, she went on a tirade about border security and how she was sick and tired of paying for people who come here to sponge off of America's citizens. Her solution? "Shoot e'm". Seriously, I'm in an ER and a hospital employee is proudly advocating shooting those seeking asylum. She then went off on another tirade about "that socialist, AOC" while she had a needle in my arm. Her anger was palpable and she was proud of it.
That is who and what we've become. It's horrifying. We used to take pride in being the nation that helped those in need. I'm afraid we're ruined for the foreseeable future unless Millennials and Gen Z comes out in droves to vote this party out of office.
3
Discounting the usual hyperbole, Trump appears 3/4 right when he refers to "‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world.”
Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley are from here, where they are working to right a government that many believe to be a complete and total catastrophe under the Trump administration.
2
If the American people can’t see yet any resemblance with the 1930’s in Europe, it’s time you all open your eyes.
4
And, thusly, I get to begin yet another week in total despair. An over-large and mostly charisma-less crowd of Dems flail away while the Tangerine Nightmare demagogues. Nothing sticks to the Teflon Don, and he throws bombs and brickbats with impunity. His supporters smile and nod even at his worst lies and hate speech. The Repubs kowtow, bowing and scraping to their carny barker leader. SAD.
Maybe he's trying to incite civil war before Epstein takes him down. And maybe this is why so many of his Republican male colleagues remain so painfully quiet.
1
I'm not at all surprised by this. Why does the media keep focusing on his hate speech? It's just fuel to the fire. Eyes on the prize, people.
"Widely established" - by those seeking to make it so? Why not question Trump to determine whether it was racist? Perhaps that wouldn't help the agenda here which, based upon this article is to provoke discord amongst Americans - as Putin asks, so shall it be done.
Just a thought.
Enjoying southern gales tonight.
My daughter asked about taking a job in Department of Veterans Affairs to support families and soldiers.
I was surprised that military service was front of mind.
My dear brother, father, uncles and aunty served Navy and Army.
Great uncles served in the Great War and the second one.
Venomous spiteful and sheer nastiness is pathetic as leadership.
Uncle Harold a huge man was gassed and his lungs let him down.
America and Australia have endured shock jocks for years using the currency minted by liberal democracies, free speech.
I am not aware of a precise definition of a shock jock but appears to imply a disc jockey who plays the same record over and over with different over or under tones.
The higher the volume the greater the effect.
Mr Trump is not stupid.
Issues of taste, ethics and truth are worthy subjects of butchering if the Nation and the race are under threat.
Slam dunk.
The bank of free speech got a massive deposit via a free goal when Trump opined via twitter.
The attitude offending his sworn Congressmen is noted internationally.
Business is business.
I don't see the US closing new trade deals anytime soon.
'
The Canada Mexico deal is un-inked.
The Kushner deal of the century arduously followed by mental calculations of frequent flyer points drones on and on.
Attacking folk with a racist veneer is not compliant with the role of the Commander in Chief who commands respect.
2
Interesting that a man with two immigrant wives and four second-generation children thinks so little of immigrants.
The non-white kind, that is.
3
We're back with another episode of Bait The Liberals! It's the show where he premeditatedly says some crazy stuff designed to promt the liberals jump up and down and come across as shrill overindulged tantrum throwing children just like him. And we liberals take the bait every time and we jump up and down like shrill, overindulged tantrum throwing children, just like him.
The ratings will be terrific! Stay tuned, another ratings busting episode is just around the corner.
The most efficient way to put out a fire is to cut off the oxygen. Will we ever figure that out?
Nah.
But the ratings will be terrific!
3
I am an African American and I have never heard someone tell me go back to my country (56 years). This is about illegal immigration. I rather have a racist president willing to fix the problem then weak virtue signaling women who neglect to help African Americans by reducing cheap labor in the country; openly inviting people who are antagonistic to African Americans (Look at California); sap social services, and break the law (crossing the border is a crime) and people disregard it. Doesn't that undermine the code of law in the United States? Yes.
As an African American male I want more concern to be placed on my plight as well as other black males who live in my community. I want African American males who lack college degree to attain a living wage by working in landscaping and construction; I want African American males who pay property taxes to feel reassured that their dollars are going to help citizens and not people who are here illegally.
Would I rather have a racist president than virtue signalling women? The answer is yes because I don't need people selling me a fairy tale which will only undermine my community.
Pro-life, pro- African American traditional family, pro-gun, pro-Trump.
4
When a President decides to take to Twitter to spew hateful and racist comments, Mitch McConnell and all members of Congress should pass a resolution denouncing the behavior.
And why did he particularly pick on Freshman Congresswomen?
2
Maybe we should pass a law that makes it illegal for the president and politicians to use twitter. It's the wrong platform to be talking about this and I find it all absolutely annoying!
4
@chris
The medium utilized IS NOT the issue.
Has Trump done anything good at all for the average American since he took office?
4
This Presidential Problem-Solver par excellence is exactly what lovers o the country have been waiting for.
Whether you accept his rough style of giving it right back to people or not, he is repeatedly poven right by what happens.
NO president I cn think of could have withastood the witch hunt orchestrated by Comey and friends, yet here he stands.
Not only will he be re-elected if he so chooses, but the workers of the country will search for more problem-solvers just like him for their White House.
@The Observer
Then God help America ...
President Trump is probably DOUBLY astonished now to learn that most of these congresswomen were actually born here. These progressive frosh, having lived in this bounteous free country their entire lives, having been the clear and direct beneficiaries of its multifarious gifts... how they could wind up disdaining and disparaging this country so passionately and vociferously, and unrelentingly, and be filled with such an intense/burning NEED to destroy its structural undergirding of personal and economic freedom.
His error was venial.
2
It’s so obvious by now what Trump and his constituents want that if the “squad” doesn’t get it, they need to get another job.
1
The obvious truth is that Don the Con, who allegedly was born here, is the most inept person to have ever been put in the position of running this government.
Because of his lack of any experience, skill or smarts, we have third rate cabinet officials, many of whom had to quit because of their corruption or poor performance. Many important positions have yet to be filled, leaving government departments leaderless.
Executive actions taken by Trump have led to greater environmental destruction, poorer air quality, lost jobs and higher taxes for the middle class.
Trump is in no position to say anything about how to run either a business or government. This nonsense is another soundbite for his base.
The GOP failure to say anything...again...shows their fear about their future in power.
5
Clever trope. Putin's advice to Trump is the gift that just keeps giving.
We need to start chanting, “ equal rights for all” while avoiding overwrought wokeness and correctness politics. Keep it simple.
Just sayin.
2
Trump always attacks those he fears. Keep up the great work Congresswomen. Vote blue everyone in 2020.
4
A solution to all the waffling, whining, odds-figuring Democrats who refuse to do their duty and impeach Trump, and to Trump's escalating battle against democracy: send him back to Germany where he came from, and let him solve their problems. But oh, I forgot, he actually was born here---was he? Or is that another lie?
2
While the wealth gap continues to reward the 1% the masses fear the poor than address those whose wealth is obscene. The immigrant seeking asylum is viewed as an enemy while a CEO 's salary may exceed an average worker's by astronomical amounts. How clever!
4
The guy has a long track record. No one in America should be surprised that Donald Trump adheres to white nationalist policies and principles. Trump has been a segregationist white nationalist for the past five decades.
3
Sorry NYT readers but for Trump to note that there are countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world, it is not a racist statement, it is a fact.
We cannot bury our heads in the sand of Politically Correctness and pretend that all countries across the world are equally well run and all the civil societies across the globe are equally strong and all economies are equally efficient.
It is a reasonable, non racist statement that people raised in such countries are ill equipped to lecture the US on economic and civil governance.
4
He’s right that the government in their original countries is a disaster if he’s referring to the USA.
4
And why would he say this? Because the outrage and news coverage will be about what he said, what everyone said in response and his rebuttal.
Keeps the caged kids off the front page.
1
"Go back to where you came from," is the new "America, love it, or leave it!" I remember this from the days of Vietnam. Nixon harnessed the resentment of white, working class Americans to hate the hippies, the yippies, and all those student draft dodgers. He used Lee Atwater's strategy to stir up racial resentments as well with his "law and order" shtick . Things change, and things stay the same. The hatred was always under the surface in America. No politician voiced them like Trump does now, but they knew how to blow a dog whistle back in the day. Now the president and the Republican Party show their pure racist side up front, no dog whistles needed (where are the voices of Republican outrage over his remarks?), and we're back to the Days of Rage. He fans the fires enough, there will be blood, God help us all.
3
So, trump hosts a "social media summit" 2-days ago. And several hours ago, trump threw a molotov cocktail into the pit of his newly hired tweeters. trump's inciting a race riot.
His tweet was right after he told them that whatever he tweets, "goes boom!"
3
Donald Trump just gave the Democrats another gift. His incendiary rhetoric is as indefensible as that of Representatives Omar and Ocasio-Cortez, who regularly issue their own hate-filled statements.
As an anti-Trump conservative, I have no political home.
2
This is just a game for President Trump. To keep him in the headlines. I don’t believe he is racist. But he will play all cards to win the election. “The squad “ is benefiting from this attention.
2
All of these Congresswomen have done something that Trump could NEVER do--they won the popular vote in their elections.
4
Hopefully this will concentrate the minds of these four congresswomen. They need a dose of humility and acknowledge that their insatiable leftist ideology is only shared by 8% of the population. They had better get on board with the rest of their fellow Democrats because our country cannot survive another 4 (8? 12? 16?) years of President Trump.
3
As usual Trump's comments are being deliberated misconstrued and maybe the Trump was hoping for that to happen. As I read it Trump is not asking any US citizen to return to their country or origin of their ancestors but to check out the state of how the countries around the world are being governed and how pathetic their state is because of being socialist or safe havens for terrorists. Trump has been heavily criticized by partisan politicians and everyone knows you don't get away without a push back from The Donald. Of course we all hope he does not respond with such venom but the nasty side of his being human will never evaporate. Trump will be Trump. If it is so important to you that Trump does not be Trump you have a lot of alternative choices for 2020. Vote.
2
As usual, a few wild-eyed, wannabe tokens try to rationalize Trump’s despicable racism and humiliate themselves in the process.
Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Omar, and Pressley are children of NYC, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Chicago, all four cities in dire need of help.
Once they have cleaned those up they can come back and advise us on other problem areas, but the squad really needs to recruit a fifth member from LA or San Francisco.
2
Anyone can see that your president is preaching to his choir to get the single-issue xenophobes behind him in 2020. What do your honest, civilized old-school conservatives think of all this? Yes, they still exist; I've had the pleasure to meet some. Or is it now anything for a buck and a vote in the GOP, with Trump being worth the embarrassment because of the rewards that he brings to some? Just asking...
3
There is no excuse for racism. Period. Any politician using racist language should be asked to resign, or, refusing to resign, should be removed from office.
4
I disagree with one of the points of this article concerning how low one can go ---- that is, no matter how low the current president seems to go in his actions and words, there is always a lower point to be found-- and he will certainly find it - in record time.
I don't believe I have ever been aware of any other human being so driven to be as far down into the gutter as is possible than this man. In that, he is superb. In anything else, he is an outright liar, never to be trusted with anything.
5
the nytimes write up of this is the worse and most inflammatory among the mainstream media that I have read.
For one, even though I do not think trump should have tweeted this, he mentioned later in the tweets to come back to the US, which is very different from the normal "racist" phrasing. I believe he tweeted this to bait the mainstream democrats to return course and defend this creepy group of congresswomen ("the squad"). Last week, the mainstream democrats have shown publicly they are in conflict with this group, which does not go well with Trump's narrative that the democratic mainstream are crazed socialists. It was ploy for trump to bait, and for the democrats to change tact: Trump's followup tweet shows evidence of this ploy, and N Pelosi did take the bait by her comment regarding making america white again. We will find out whether trump succeeds in gaining a political position, or whether it backfires. I think trump will win this one, because pelosi will now have to align with the "squad' Trump does operate this way for those that do not notice much
2
As a legal “Brown” immigrant who was offered a green card sponsorship by a large Hi Tech American company, it dismays me when people are advocating for open borders or illegal immigrants are being encouraged to game the system. I had to go through due process for two years and had to wait for my wife and kids for one and a half years to join me in the USA while their papers were being processed in our native country. They remained there during that time. What is happening on our southern borders is unfair and I don’t believe for one second that the republicans or DJT are being racist in their immigration views.
1
@Kirk Land. Trump was criticizing women who were born in the United States. Although using different words he was was disparaging them in the same way that has generally been done with immigrants. Go back where you came from. The only thing missing was the ethnic slur at the end of the sentence. He is ignorant.
There are more good people in America than bad people. Way more. They are going to vote like crazy in 2020. Thank you Trump people for letting us know who you are. And don't worry, we aren't the vengeful type, unlike your President.
4
I assume that the Times is hoping that it's readers will not bother to read Trumps actual tweets, because what the Times is blasting out, is not what Trump said.
Trump did not identify the "squad group" either by name of number.
Far into the article, we are told:
"Broadly, Mr. Trump’s attack on lawmakers appeared to be meant for members of the so-called squad"
in other words, the headline provided to us by the Times, was a fabrication.
Trumps statement will be interpreted by those who are not hard core leftists, in a positive way.
Trumps tweets are brilliant campaigning - he is as good at campaigning, as he is useless at doing anything constructive.
The Ultra Liberal push against Trump will fail, and we will be stuck with him for another 4 years, unless Democrats drop the current line of attack on Trump, and come up with specific proposals and actions that appeal to the typical Red State American.
Labeling your opponent (and just about everyone else) as a racist is a very worn out stunt - one that will not help us to win in 2020.
Attacking the people whose votes she needed to win, was Clinton's mistake. Must we repeat it? There is absolutely nothing "Progressive" about being crushed by Trump again.
Summary: Guatemala has zero electoral votes, Texas has 38.
11
@Peter Z
I think the NYT and its readership are capable for connecting the dots. Who else could Trump be talking about as “Progressive Congresswomen”?
These young congresswomen must be on to something. Trump, Fox and their billionaire buds are working overtime to surgically separate these alert, duly elected women of color from the rest of “America.” My guess is that the Green New Deal scared them to death. The GND scripted the big bucks guys’ worst nightmare: linking environmental activism to the social justice concerns of the poor and vulnerable. (Pope Francis did the same thing, and the reactionary wing of his Church has virtually deposed him.)
The women were slick, surprising the plutocrats by getting the GND into public consciousness three or so minutes after their swearing in. Of course, the .1% mobilized rapidly and targeted these congresswomen with venom unusual even in Washington.
Trump is, as he always will be, out front with the vituperation, questioning not just their point of view but their legitimacy as Americans worthy of having a point of view. What is more isolating than being told to leave your country and go solve some other country’s problems? By the president?
They did accomplish something notable: got a fresh and compelling perspective out to us peons a few seconds before the powerful could squelch it. However, the squelching is well along, and even many Democrats are questioning the patriotism, wisdom, and rationality of these extraordinary women.
You got to give it to Trump and his enablers. When they set out to crush you, they do a thorough job.
6
Donald Trump does not say this in ignorance. Donald Trump says this deliberately to fuel hatred. Hatred is Trump's weapon. Hatred is the foundation upon which his base is built.
6
Trump has successfully trolled the entire democratic base into forcing their primary candidates to push further left and more extremely. With a single tweet, he has also undermined mainstream democrats - the ones who the party needs to will actually contestable elections.
While the media truncated his tweet - supporters would argue that he is not being racist - but rather pointing to the fact that specific individuals where using their heritage as a card only to not accept the downsides of what that heritage means.
At its heart its a horribly Machiavellian strategy. Trump is not a racist individual, but he knows how to use it to his advantage.
One that could be attacked by its targets calling out him, but more importantly them standing up for the USA as much as he does and when needed disavowing the terrible government's they experienced as children rather than those who are in other distant countries.
1
I am heartened to see the overwhelming response of Republicans throughout this country criticizing Donald Trump for his negative, destructive posturing against American citizens who happen to have dark skin. I applaud your courage. History books will recognize you for your willingness to speak up when it was politically dangerous for you to do so. You bring honor to your party. /s
2
Just as my family came from "abroad" more than 100 years ago, Donald's family also came here more than a century ago. Donald was lucky that there were no racists demanding that he go back to where he came from. He was also fortunate not to be placed in jail for refusing to serve in our armed forces when told to do so. Yet he rails against those who want only what his family wanted so many years ago.
4
As someone from outside the US, I really cannot comprehend how Trump is still President. How can one of the most powerful men in the world behave like an uneducated, spoiled child and face no consequences whatsoever? It's beyond my imagination, and the stark contrast between him and Obama makes my heart hurt. It's like one step forward, a thousand steps back.
12
My question is.
If he is saying this about perceived immigrants. What is he going to say to aliens and naturalized citizens of America? Is this the new attack against his perceived enemies? How many remember the term "DP"? From fifties? When we had immigrats from Europe coming here. All those Hungarians after the invasion of Hungary. Are we going down this slippery slope again and where will this bring us?
5
To call Mr. Trump a "racist" is as simplistic and one dimensional as taking Mr. Trump's commentary at face value.
There is no doubt that Mr. Trump prefers to be in the company of people who look like him. That is his prerogative, but that does not make him a "racist" and calling him that will not translate into new support for the imploding democratic party.
I think Mr. Trump is coldly calculating -- correctly or not -- that his comments about the "squad of four" will resonate among those of us who are older, white, who are conservative democrats and possibly swing voters, and who view the four congresswomen in question as aberrations not because of their color or ethnicity, but because of their obvious contempt for the United States, their ignorance of our legislative processes, their dismissal of hierarchy, and in the case of Omar Ilan, their casual antisemitism.
Speaking for myself, I am sufficiently educated to understand that what Mr. Trump is up to and will not be swayed one way or the other by his remarks.
My key concerns are the economy and foreign policy, and on those counts, Mr. Trump has my support... until I see a better alternative from the democrats.
5
@Frank J Haydn
As president, it is NOT his prerogative.
In the meantime, our president has enjoined a council to determine what our rights are.
He will be filling the majority of 'position' with end times evangelicals.
They will probably recommend rolling back any rights which empower any group which is non-white, oppressed, or female.
3
I had a wonderful mentor many many years ago who would state that even the strongest pure metal was weaker than its weakest alloy.
It's not about immigration. For those trying to defend Trump in saying this plays to him by suggesting that a defense of immigrants is an advocation of open borders is willfully helping Republicans (through Trump) in their message of hate by covering up its reality. Because that's what the Rs do. They very simple and easily digestible messages not because those messages have anything to do with their real policies but because those simplistic messages are so simple they shield the more complex policies (this time one of simple hate) that they truly support.
The truth is that any neighborhood which is predominately a single ethnic group is weaker than any which is mixed. This is why immigration is needed. This is why a fairing out of our socio-economic system is needed. (no - not completely egalitarian for those fools thinking that's what's suggested, but it would help enormously if the highs were pulled down a bit and the lows were built up a bit) So, we need to celebrate that diversity, not condemn it.
2
Trump is not wrong: the government of the country in which 3 of the 4 Congresswomen were born is a complete and total catastrophe.
10
The first time I heard that they call themselves “The Squad” I burst out laughing; there is an SNL skit where Bill Hader is an obnoxious game show host who brags about hanging out with a “group of problematic bachelors... we call ourselves The Squad.” Please tell me they are paying homage to this skit with their nickname, and it’s not just a wonderful coincidence.
I thought the Squad came from a recent Maureen Dowd column. I thought it came from the British term Awkward Squad, used (in politics) to describe the far left of the Labour Party (including Jeremy Corbin).
>>>Ms. Pelosi may have offered the bluntest take on Mr. Trump’s comments when she said his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” “has always been about making America white again.”
She is right and thus may be also on wrong side. I am white male that feels increasingly under the siege. I used to not care what color you are but now it so all about “people of color.” Well, what you do when you are excluded? Stick with your own, don’t you? I will vote for Sanders who at least thinks about well by of all people regardless of race.
2
"A spokesman for Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, declined to comment on Mr. Trump’s remarks. Representatives for Republican House leaders did not respond to emails seeking comment. " It's not just Trump who is a racist. The entire party has been infiltrated. Leaders who do not publicly and vehemently stand up against these remarks are racist too.
6
Trump makes these outrageous comments to attract media attention, but the bottom line is that Democrats support illegal immigration. Otherwise, why this outcry against enforcing court-issued deportation orders? Being a haven for refugees is not the same as supporting illegal immigration. This only hurts real refugees.
4
Nancy Pelosi tweeted, “Stop the raids”.
The raids are aimed at those whose asylum requests have been denied. If we do not deport people who have been issued final deportation orders then we have open borders. If anyone can move here, then even more poor, undereducated people from around the world will make their way here. Such people need health care and many other government services, but what they would pay in taxes would not come close to covering their costs.
Canada can afford its national health system by carefully choosing who can move there (Canada looks for immigrants who would contribute special skills or knowledge to its economy and who would easily assimilate), and by quickly deporting anyone whose claim for asylum has been denied.
A 10/30/18 CBC article titled "Canada Border Services Agency moves to 'substantially' increase deportations” said, "Canada's border agency is stepping up efforts to deport failed refugee claimants and other foreign nationals not welcome in this country, setting a goal of dramatically increasing deportation numbers by up to 35 per cent."
"An email from the director of Canada Border Services Agency's Enforcement and Intelligence Operations Division, sent Oct. 17 and obtained by CBC News, outlines the plan to ramp up removals to 10,000 people a year.”
Canadians know they could not afford national health care or other services, if they welcomed all migrants who managed to cross their borders.
6
Trump is emboldened by the social media "summit" of conspiracy theorists he hosted at the White House.
But, you know, those regulatory rollbacks, tax cuts for the rich, and whacky conservative judges make it all worth it.
(sarcasm)
3
Just think of the impact if EVERYONE who disapproves of Trump's racist tweets would contact their Republican members of Congress tomorrow morning and point-blank ask them to take a stand, show some leadership, and denounce what the President said. I will be, and unfortunately I'll have to make three calls.
2
Actually, the USA are the highest infected crime nation in the world with 8 times more violent crime rate per capita than European average . Also 8 times highest incarceration rate per capita than in Europe.
Almost 1 % of Americans are in jail. The highest in the world.
1
No one disputes that Trump is a racist, and it doesn't change his base's opinion.
But is it really in the opposition's best interest to keep rediscovering that fact every day? The discovering that the r-word is monogrammed on his shirts is no longer a news story.
Trump has made immigration his campaign platform because of its racist and xenophobic power. Thru these repeated feints, he seems to be trying to make identity politics the Democrats' platform.
All the columns devoted to his latest insults have succeeded in pushing the ICE raids into the shadows. Trump's strategy seems to be working.
2
Will. is totally right. What we should do instead of responding with upset remarks about racism that plays directly into his hands is to be completely SILENCE to his populist tweets, to treat Trump and other ignorant and unreliable politicians like him in other countries as they were NOTHING. Eventually, they will realize that you can’t achieve anything in a vacuum so they will become more provocative in search for reactions. When that doesn’t work either it will become apparent to more and more people that they don’t really have any political ideas of their own and that their success rests solely on other people's fears.
3
If Trump wants to play that game, that the country of my ancestors is better than your ancestors country, then there is plenty of ammunition against Trump.
Trump's family originates from Germany. Now I love Germany, and think think these kinds of games are silly. But if one was to stomp down to Trump level, they could point out that neither of them come from a country that started two world wars.
But there is another lesson there. No country is intrinsically bad. Germany managed to clean up its act and is a beacon for the whole world today in how it champions human rights, the environment, workers rights all while being an exporting industrial powerhouse.
3
Too full - the heck!
So just that everybody is aware:
As of current stats regarding population density, US ranks about 146 of 198 nations listed,
with about 35 people per square kilometer, give or take one dependending on the source.
Examples of countries with comparable (if not superior) wealth:
Switzerland: ranked 49, 209 per square km
Japan: ranked 27, 349 per square km (roughly 10 times the population densitity of US!)
Netherlands: ranks 14, 506 per square km.
For completeness, the EU as a conglomerate has about 119 inhabitants per square km, which would squeeze in at rank 71.
So the leader of the self proclaimed richest/best nation of the world feels unable to accomodate a rather modest intake of refugees?
May I Remind (from my own memory):
Since 2015, the EU has taken in excess of 1 mil, (Germany alone 800.000).
But still both, EU and US should be ashamed when looking at the numbers for Turky (about 3,5 mil, Turky is ranked 82, with a density of 106), and the war torn Lebanon, which ranks 11, with a density of 590, made up of about 6 mil people in total, had to cope with an other million, in addition to the palestinean refugies, they already host, aprox. 20% of those in Lebanon are refuges.
2
Trump always boasts that America is a great country. True. But this country was made great not but a particular race. The blood, sweat and sacrifice of all the races that have embraced America, loved as their own, alone has made it great. Such senseless outrage, demanding the Congresswomen to go back to the country of origin will only disturb the morale, of not only these women, but all patriots who love America irrespective of their race. These women are elected representatives of the American people. They are to be given their due respect.
3
@T. Anand Raj They should stop referring to themselves as "women of color." They are stressing their separateness from those of us who don't have color. They want reparations from those of us who didn't do anything to them or their ancestors. They are not focusing on what they have in common with all Americans - they are focusing on the opposite. It's not working.
The wisdom of our forefathers is on proud display here. This is what the Electoral College and the Senate have given us. And we are powerless to stop it. Until we decide that the Constitution needs a rewrite or else the country splits, we will continue to suffer through this trash.
2
I am embarrassed to be an American. I am embarrassed to be white. I am embarrassed to be a Baby Boomer. I am so despondent about the state of our nation. I grieve for our future. I hope for the best from Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z. Will my children and others save us? That is my hope.
4
He's literally become Archie Bunker - only the bigoted TV Archie was shown back in the early 70's as simply ignorant, while Trump uses it to throw gasoline on the political flames of division/racism. He knows all he has is fear - and most of the time it works - except in the 2018 elections he really ratcheted it up with "they're coming to get you!" and yet Dems took control of the House. But to distract, he scares his base - I recently re-watched Aaron Sorkin's American President and Michael Douglas' character has a speech at the end and a few of the lines are dead on target when discussing how Trump works (Replace the name Rumson w/ Trump;) "We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only—making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, and American values and character, and you wave an old photo of the President's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism. You tell them she's to blame for their lot in life." And that's what Trump does to his base - it's THEIR fault for any of your woes!
3
Viewing from Europe, I would have hoped for a more measured tone with wisdom instead of endless insults.
2
So many 'Twitter-storms' after risible events I'm surprised we don't start naming them.
"places from which they came." Who wrote this? Can't be Trump. Doesn't forgive the tenor of the tweet, but I'm confused--did he have help?
3
Trump is many negative things but he is quite shrewd. The squad’s recklessness gave him an opportunity to rant and he grabbed it. This all provides a diversion from everything else that’s happening and further rips apart the Democrats. If the Democrats don’t unite and get the squad to cool it, we’ll be lucky if all we get are four more years of Trump.
6
A deliberate leader demotes power to the people for convergence. He lacks that skill.
“A spokesman for Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, declined to comment on Mr. Trump’s remarks.“
He silently concurs...
3
Needless to say: Trump lacks the class and style of a statesman, who is president of ALL Americans.
He is once again sowing discord among Democrats. Defending Pelosi only deepens the divisons within her party, pitting her against the four members of the “Squad.”
The feud started last month, when the four Congresswomen criticised their Democratic colleagues for supporting an emergency funding bill to send more money to the border. The measure passed, but they said the bill didn’t do enough to protect migrant children held in federal detention centres. Tlaib was very emotional during a House hearing on the Trump administration’s child separation policy that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley had to comfort her. Now she is more determined than ever to have Trump impeached, putting more pressure on Pelosi.
The four women are willing and capable of fighting Trump’s fire with fire. It's a wrong strategy. They shouldn’t stoop as low as he does.
5
Well at least these congresswomen were legitimately elected. Sure can't say the same thing about Trump. (See report, Mueller)
3
I don't suppose this country itself can go back, to the 1950's when it had a decent Republican as President, Ike.
Hugh
2
No words. The saddest part about what Trump said publicly is that those who support Trump will start to believe that it’s not where you’ve been raised that connects you to your culture (country where you were born and raised) but it’s your ethnicity. How much more divisive can you get?
268
@Alexandra The only part of your post I disagree with is the "start to believe". Sadly, Trump supporters have believed that for a long time.
21
@arish sahani: This statement is just not true, and is a product of misinformation being spread by those who fear and hate perceived "outsiders". There have been Muslim people living in the US for many years without any consequence aside from having the freedom to practice their religion without intervention, which is granted to them here as a part of our Constitution. Locales with large Muslim populations include sites such as Detroit, Minneapolis - St. Paul, New Jersey, Washington D.C and elsewhere. The people who espouse these contrary views are enamored of dispersing factually wrong, politically motivated misinformation that is then believed. This falls into the same bucket of "false facts" as the idea that the immigrants are coming to the US to take US jobs - not only has this trope been proven false statistically, but most undocumented first generation and relatively uneducated immigrants coming to the US work in jobs in agriculture and other fields that native born Americans, White, Black or otherwise, do not readily fill. The other undocumented immigrant population, those that overstay their visas after coming to the US for summer work, college or graduate school, form a different group who do have the skills to compete economically with US citizens. Quietly, this includes white people, as well as people of color, and are thought to form the bulk of the "undocumented immigrant" population that is actually here, not the folks crossing the US southern border.
6
@arish sahani. Your post really doesn't merit a response except to say that (i) 3 of the 4 people that Trump targeted are US-born citizens, not immigrants and (ii) only 2 of the 4 are Muslims (as if that matters).
3
Mitch McConnell had nothing to say? So, he agrees with Trump. That's a logical assumption.
8
I'm certain this violates Twitter's terms of service. I think this calls for a suspension at the least.
11
I’m sure it does and it would be enforced if anyone else tweeted this but twitter has made it perfectly clear that they will not enforce any ToS violations by Trump. He violated the ToS multiple times during the campaign and since his inauguration. When Twitter was challenged to enforce the violations in the past they simply rewrote the terms to add a “world leader clause” which basically allows Trump to tweet whatever he feels like free of consequences. Sadly Twitter is afraid they will lose users if Trump isn’t on their platform. That’s their main priority
Meanwhile back at the ranch in the US the EPA is being gutted (already air quality is plummeting), the CFPB is being dismantled, Dodd–Frank is being compromised, the deficit is going through the roof, huge chunks of public lands are being sold off, world free trade is being seriously assailed, the justice department is being revamped with a slew of GOP biased judicial appointees, and all while the FBI is being disemboweled.
13
With 3K comments, someone May have already expressed my thoughts.
These women are strong and will endure these comments like they have well before the president came along.
My concern is for children that see our president making statements like this. How are children of color supposed to grow up feeling as though they are a full and equal part of America when the president is disparaging American elected officials in this manner?
6
first dems don't want open borders. and I would like to point out that several drug busts that have happened in the last months have come from ports, NOT THE BORDER . one, was 2 tons of meth found in a port in philly-the port authorities just happened to check the shipping containers. only around one percent of shipping containers are checked at port authorities.
another bust came when huge tires were shipped to a ford shipping plant and the tires were full of meth. close to two million dollars. so the idea that all the drugs come through Mexican border is not true. they come through ports of entry and not just at the southern border.
the submersible that the coast guard stopped in the ocean last week came from Ecuador. that was 17, 000 lbs of coke.
also, trump is going to stop the money sent to the triangle of latin American countries. has anyone stopped to say why. currently in Guatemala there is a drought in half of the country. Nicholas kristof recently wrote an article called "no food will grow here" they cannot grow corn or tomatoes. they have had a drought there for three yrs now.
also, el Salvador,, Nicaragua)and Honduras . we supported many dictators like baby doc , bautista and others. so the u.s. has set up a lot of the situations such as violence in those countries.
and once migrants are arrested here we have to take care of them. his tweets were nothing but racism.
4
Peter Baker’s article says it best. The president is playing with fire.
4
Unhappily, pundits have presumed that Wisconsin is a pivot state potentially apt to vote for Trump in 2020 because he carried the state in 2016. I hope readers understand that Wisconsin flipped by a very narrow margin because because Mrs Clinton did not visit the state in the run up to the election. In particular, minority voters in Milwaukee stayed home, and hence the minority Republican party of Wisconsin was given a golden opportunity to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. And so it goes.
Democrats in Wisconsin are the majority of the states voters. However, gerrymandering by an exceptionally conservative Republican Party has given them control of the state legislature. And rural areas seldom see Democratic organizers because Democrats tend to rely on voters in Milwaukee and Madison. Democrats focus on the two largest cities, Madison and Milwaukee, because they are voter rich for the party. Perhaps having the Democratic Convention in Milwaukee next year will provide Wisconsin Democrats with a healthy push throughout the state.
As for Mr Trump, his ugly attacks on Democratic Congresswomen may inspire some Wisconsin voters, but there is a significant number of Wisconsinites who find Trump's hate mongering to be over the top of decency.
3
Not everything should be about political calculation.We should stand on the side of morality and equality, despite the fact that America has always had a race problem.Racism is as American as apple pie which came from immigrants from England.
5
I hope people don't take this the wrong way and I disagree strongly with Trump. But one does wonder if an intelligent articulate person like Rep Omar doesn't at least have some thoughts of why she is not putting her talents to helping her native Somalia where many family members and fellow countrymen desperately need help. A failing state that sure could use her talents, instead of the USA which though has many problems there is certainly less bang for the buck for politicians.
5
@DJ
Can you please explain how being extremely poor, uneducated, sick and living in life-threatening conditions somehow, in your opinion, means that YOU, not the citizens of the world's wealthiest countries who live at peace and thrive, should miraculously turn the dictatorship that is murdering its own people into a democracy ... ?
Any concrete advice?
And if you see how rapidly Trump and the GOP are destroying America's democracy today, since when are politicians in Congress who dare to fight for the Constitution precisely because they have seen with their own eyes what happens once racism etc. start to be cultivated at the highest level, somehow not really useful or necessary?
Any ideas?
1
“Rather than attack Members of Congress, he should work with us for humane immigration policy that reflects American values,”
where is the development of that "humane policy" happening?
certainly not in the congress.
4
Congress is elected by the people of the U.S. Trump’s telling the elected representatives of the American people to stop ‘telling’ him how their constituents want the government to act is equivalent to telling those constituents that, ‘since you’re not going to vote for me I don’t want to hear what you have to say’.
2
I'm beginning to feel that Trump is getting the sense that the walls are really closing in on him. Epstein might be the straw that breaks his back. It might be Mueller's testimony. It might be his taxes coming into the light in new York. He is melting down in front of our very eyes. Many seem to thing he has some devious plan but I don't buy it. The end of his run is closer than all of us think. Just like the dictators he admires around the globe, eventually they all fall down.
4
Trump has divided this country like no other president during my lifetime...and I'm 77. Not even Nixon and the Vietnam War managed to pit American against American like our president has managed to do. One friend of mine refuses to speak to any Trump supporter. An former classmate went on such a rant against Trump today that I had to hold my phone at a distance! In talking to my sister..a lifetime Republican, I have to be extremely careful to avoid politics.
I don't know where this is going, but it can't be good. Trump isn't making America great again, he's bringing on Civil War. The last one was fought between the North and South. This one is already being fought among "friends", neighbors and relatives in all parts of the country.
6
Trump's grandfather tried to return to his native Germany after emigrating to the U.S., but they wouldn't take him back because the reason he left in the first place was to avoid German military service. The apple doesn't fall far from the draft-dodging tree. I don't agree with her on everything, but I'd take someone like the gutsy, feisty AOC for my combat infantry squad over Trump any day.
4
President Trump Will likely be re-elected. Its sad and may make you feel sick but its likely.
The question of immigration divides the US and the large white population feels threatened by the change in demography.
immigration, pro-life and in part tax cuts, those are the questions that Will continue to divide US. Those are the issues that will get him re-elected.
I grew up in Iowa, in 1979 my parents sponsored 2 young boy's from Vietnam. They are now in their 50's and very financially successful. In their youth they would attend our Lutheran church but in their true beliefs they were Buddhist. Politics and religion usually don't mix but these boy's who are now men will always be my brothers.
5
“The Squad” is being played brilliantly by The Donald. They couldn’t do his work better for him if they were GOP plants. If grabbing power is their aim, then Trump will give it to them knowing he has the war won.
3
Yes, they should have shown more maturity, but they should also exercise more common sense. Our foremost goal is to unseat Trump. The other issues that engage them are important, but if they focus too much on their own pet issues, we will fail to defeat Trump. If that happens, then there is absolutely no hope for the other issues they wish to address.
4
Nearly every day Trump defines and reinforces who he is.
His supporters are also being defined in the process.
The picture is getting uglier.
I thought it couldn't, but it is.
2
"A spokesman for Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, declined to comment on Mr. Trump’s remarks. Representatives for Republican House leaders did not respond to emails seeking comment. The White House also did not respond to a request for comment.". This is the scary part. The POTUS can say what he said and his party is silent, meaning that they will go along with whatever he wants/says. If they will not speak against this then what would they speak out against....nothing.
4
If Trump's comments are animated by consideration of his 'base" we have a problem. The Democrats need to focus on health care, the tax cut for the rich and honour. Avoid immigration and multiple identity issues.
3
Nothing this president says is too low. But after reading some of the other comments, I agree with one thing: this definitely feels like a trap to set himself up to win a few states which are pivotal to his re-election. The Democrats should be smart and take a cue from the last election, which was promised that “Mexico would pay for the wall”. Never happened, but it didn’t matter. It did the job. Democrats should promise American voters that they will support refugees being bussed to Canada (regardless if they fully intend to or not). The refugees will prefer it because Canada is perceived to be more welcoming. Conservatives and independents would argue who pays for the gas, but that’s an argument easy to win. And Canada becomes the hero, esp when the people in the U.S. elect the nominee with the most votes.
1
Most of us have acknowledged that Trump has not now or ever will act presidential. We feel at this point some numb, tired, frustrated and or overwhelmed by his antics. The actions he employs to degrade, decimate , and push his agenda constantly puts us in positions of continually having to explain what we feel is the truth, honorable and part and parcel of our democracy. We will continue in varied ways to make our and our children’s lives what we believe this country was meant for. For all, for hard working people for the world to see it was possible. We will do this with grace and dignity and tenacity and voices of which we were meant to use. We don’t use weapons, other than our energy and voices and hearts. We take care of others and advocate for those who need help. God bless us.
3
As a woman who is also a Democrat, I took Trump's "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came" remark to heart.
As an immigrant, I would love to return to my homeland and help fix it. Most of my family still lives there and they suffer financial insecurity and the threat of violence every day.
There is a staggering amount of gun violence and racism, and health care costs are ridiculously high (I pay less than a fifth in health insurance compared to my family back home). Most people there live on the edge of poverty and cannot absorb an unexpected expense of as little as US$400.
To make matters worse, it appears the current government was elected with the help of a foreign entity that has its own interests at heart. And news reports that I see indicate that most of those in high government positions, including the president, are inept at best.
Unfortunately, I cannot afford to move back home to the USA. Where I live now my high taxes give me social amenities that the US does not provide. The best I can do is promise to try to bring change to my home country in the next election, on November 3, 2020.
4
US citizen here, watching in horror. We have learned to expect the worst from the current president, and it does get worse every day. But, alone he cannot stand. He is supported by his party and his chosen people in appointed posts. Where are the members of the Republican Party who will stand up and say NO, to remarks like these? And where is the media? I think every single member of the legislature should be pressed by the media to answer the question, what do they think of Trump’s remarks? Are they acceptable or not? The media has the power to ask these questions and show exactly where people stand. I do feel that the failure of the media to insist on clarifying and indeed exposing candidates’ views on the issues helped get Trump into the White House in 2016. The circus is over—-and real journalism has a very important role to play.
3
Trump is certainly not doing this to attack or weaken Democrats (tweets like this instead unify them around one of the main pillars holding the party together: anti-racism).
He's doing this for one reason only: it is now certain that on ALL of his signature campaign promises, he will have utterly failed.
Ever since he rejected the Democrats' offer to pass a bill similar to the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill that Obama passed in the Senate in 2013 (but that the GOP House refused to even allow a vote on, because they knew it would pass and then couldn't spread the "Democrats are open border" myth anymore, as the bill would have TRIPLED the number of border patrol agents at the southern border) ... AND that this time (2017) contained FULL funding of his wall, it became clear that he never wanted a wall in the first place. It was all mere campaign propaganda.
The same thing, of course, goes for his pledge to deport all 11 million undocumented people.
In 2017, he had an annual deportation number that was LOWER than Obama's 2016 number - and it's not the 2,000 that he's rounding up now that will make a difference, BUT just like with his tweets, it creates media storms, and that's the only thing the GOP needs to do to fire up its base and get their full support, in the era of Fox News' fake news.
So no wall, no mass deportations, but 24/7 racist tweets and some symbolical actions, and his base is happy.
THAT is what the GOP did to America's greatness.
4
There was a time not so long ago that this type of language was common in our country. I refuse to accept that we are okay with it still in 2019.
2
I encourage The Squad to note that Mr. Trump is a master of projection of what he himself is doing onto his opponents, and ask them please NOT to rise to the bait. You can't win by reacting to what he says. He's not exactly a balanced personality. Don't let him set the agenda. Don't play the game. If you stick to what is right and true and works for the common good, and listen to ordinary people across the spectrum, you won't be playing the game he's playing. Play it, and we all lose.
2
To win the election. Democrats should 1, No taxes for anyone making 60k a year or less, period. Dacca ok and then strong immigration control.Just do it. Tax the rich over 500,000 progressing upward rich pay more, much more. Free community college. Infrastructure improvements ,responsible climate That’s it. Do not argue with Trump, Even in debates. Just do not answer anything he brings up. Ignore him as if he is not there.Don't over do it just get it done and repeat it and repeat it. Don’t repeal his tax cuts. Kennedy did tax’s they work fora whole.
2
While Trump may be wrong about this type of tirade, the intended targets have to wait till they have something on record to show what they have done till now or how they have a strategy to defeat Trump. One of them seems to mouth every thing her adviser wants her to - may be a different type Steve Miller- these statements may not be conducive to a winning strategy.
The country as a whole is not ready for their kind of policies yet even is their constituencies may be. They have no common objective - Getting Trump out is the objective for a majority in the country - they must wise up. All the ranting will not work just as Trump's tweets have done nothing so far.
1
The message here isn't what Trump said. It reflects who he and his followers are. Nothing new here. What Trump et al are afraid of is the loss of white controlled America. This is the message for the 4 congresswomen: I get you have idealistic dreams and hopes for this country. Everyone does. But the enemy isn't Nancy Pelosi. She is trying to help you realize that jamming the square peg into the round hole won't get it there. You need to smooth out the corners and ease it in. It takes time, effort, and above all patience. Martin Luther King didn't get the civil rights bill passed because he demanded it. He got there by working hard, paying his dues, rallying the people, and, yes, compromising. Pelosi is on your side. She wants what you want. That she has gotten all the things done she has by working with the cards she is dealt shouldn't be a badge of shame . For it is one of honor. You will get no where if Trump is re-elected. Your cause will remain. But it will take a much longer and more indirect route to get where you want to go with Trump in charge and Pelosi out of power. Simply put....things don't work the way you want them to. Americans don't want to be pulled around by the ear lobe. They want to be led by the hand.
2
This is Trump's political strategy. He has decided to make the next election a referendum on race to stop illegal immigration. The Democrats are falling for it hook, line and sinker and will likely lose. All the Democrats have to do is propose a reasonable settlement to the immigration issue that proves they are not promoting open borders. I am a liberal Democrat, loathe Mr. Trump and SUPPORT border control based on a rationalized, orderly immigration system and methodology for dealing with legitimate asylum seekers.
4
It seems one can never assume that we have reached the lowest point possible in our civil discourse as long as Trump is in office. I can’t stop thinking about his promises to “drain the swamp” and how he and those he has chosen to surround himself with have shown the often are “the swamp.” I’m trying not to become numb to the insanity we are witnessing.
1
Trump will do anything and say anything that will get him reelected; This is what the Democrats have to realize because if they do not then they are at a double disadvantage. Forewarned is forearmed.
3
There are legal immigrants and there are illegal immigrants.
What constitutes an open border? Physical barriers like Berlin Wall? Or policy issue with consideration of humanity? Limited resources? Rule of law?
How do we handle the illegal aliens that are already here? There is no way to send them all back In practicality, especially DACA people. If we grant amnesty to all of them, what would be the impact to attract more illegal aliens in the future?
Trump has no answer but just to throw the emotional mud on the wall to confuse the issue and create fears. Democrats need to have a clear and realistic view to answer it.
Don’t count on the current Republican Party to help. They are not The Republican Party any more.
2
But oh no let's talk more about how Democrats are obsessed with "identity politics." Wanting to give people of different backgrounds a seat at the table is not "identity politics." Wanting to give all segments of American society a voice in politics is not "identity politics." Telling four American citizens and duly-elected representatives of the people to "go back" where they came from is the real "identity politics."
1
There are a lot of comments here about "winning strategies" or analyzing Trump's "ignorance" or "genius" in political terms.
That is what is so bizarre about this whole situation and about this time in our history. This isn't a man who is trying to get re-elected. He didn't intend to get elected to begin with. He wasn't prepared to be elected in 2016.
We are dealing with a sociopath who is loving (and perpetuating) the current situation in our country because it is ABOUT HIM!
Our electoral system allowed us to elect a candidate who didn't intend to be elected but only ran for the publicity!
It may take decades for historians to explain in clear terms what actually happened here.
But so many people here (and everywhere) are discussing this president, his statements, his policies, etc., in traditionally political terms. And none of this applies to this presidency!
What do you think this man will do if/when he loses in 2020? Do you think he'll retreat to a more insular private life like a Bob Dole or GHW Bush? No! He'll be tweeting for the rest of his life! Because people react to him! That's more important to this man than being president! To Donald J. Trump, this presidency is nothing more or less than the greatest reality show in history! And, in the sense that he values most, he's right!
2
I urge all members of the Democratic Party let the Presidents comments die on the vine. The Party’s position is clear, and any further comments gives the President the platform HE wants.
This should now be the defining moment for the only the GOP and I urge all Journalists to pointedly and unrelenting get the GOP members of Congress and the White House staff on the record for how they feel about the President’s tweets. “No comment” will not be excepted and will be the justification to end any interview. Only unequivocal comments will be excepted. The question should be asked often and at every Senate debate.
The GOP member should have NO opportunity to put any daylight between themselves and the President and his comments; NONE.
This is THE moment when the Fourth Estate should do its job with all the power it can muster. Mitch McConnell should be the first person to be put on record, followed by Pence, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and AG Barr, Kevin McCarthy and Grisham, the Kushner's and every single Cabinet member and let’s not forget Kellyann. If they don’t answer the question without ambiguity then the interview is terminated. They either unequivocally stand with or against the President. No shade;no ambiguities. If the interviewee cannot answer the question in 30 seconds or less, the journalist should simply say the subject of the interview would not denounce racism.
The 4th estate has the power; use it!
2
Ugh, Tucker Carlson spent a good part of last week covering Ilhan Omar's past statements about US foreign policy on Fox News, which is where the president gets information fed to him at a level he can easily understand.
We can argue back and forth about the appropriateness of Trump's tweet, but omitting what was reported about Ilhan Omar to trigger all of this strikes me as (predictably) irresponsible and misleading.
In short, Tucker Carlson presented video of her misrepresenting the US role in Somalia (a country devastated more by ravenous Japanese fishing boats than by any US foreign policy), and also suggesting that the US and the US army were moral equivalents of Al Qaeda. This is the kind of stuff I expect to see spouting from the mouths of college freshmen being fed a diet of Howard Zinn's revisionist history, not something I expect from a member of congress.
2
This is truly “beyond the pale”. He owes an apology to these four congresswomen and to the nation. If this isn’t hate speech, what is. Very disturbing that there isn’t a word from Republican leadership. Are we to assume that by their silence they are in agreement with him?
2
When does this horror end? At what point, does even one Republican of conscience, just one, say, "Enough is enough." At what point does the next one say the same, until at last there are enough of us to reclaim the America we love, the one that embraces all.
2
Trump is right. Simply put, he tells it like it is. Those four are the problem, not Trump
1
@Mark Stevens
What exactly is the “Problem” Mark? Please tell us in precise words what you think is so problematic about four women with opinions. If you can’t articulate what is wrong about the women then by all means do the reverse and explain what Trump is right about. I’d love to hear more.
It's unfortunate that Twitter has become the de facto forum for political discourse. Trump doesn't care what kind of response he gets with his incendiary tweets, just as long as he gets a reaction. He boasted about this very thing at the crazy social media summit he recently hosted at the White House.
What would happen if those who trump targets in his tweets (i.e. Democratic candidates) all pledged to mute or block trump's account, and just stopped Tweeting responses to his attacks? Why can't we shift the debate away from canned responses and messages limited to 280 characters, towards more meaningful dialogue?
1
It's popular to think it best if Democrats just ignore and not fight against the opportunistic racism coming from the administration. Underneath this sentiment is an acknowledgement that the country, by default, is one of predominate white supremacy and its best if "others" stay silent to concerns that many fail to see are existential threats, not just to black and brown people but to the whole country. It's not the Democratic messaging that is the problem, but white racism that has to change.
1
Trump should be more charitable since the gang of four is working so hard for his reelection.
The biggest problem democrats have is on the local level. It's why these women and the democratic party keep focusing on national issues and Trump. The absence of Deblasio during the blackout on some ridiculous campaign is a perfect example of democratic problems.
I too wish democrats , including these women, would go back to their districts and clean up their mess on a local level. They won't because that would involve dealing with crime, violence, gangs drug addiction, failing education, lack of opportunities, lack of affordable housing for those in the middle, failing infrastructure and the fact that illegal immigration is a negative not a positive. All issues they would rather avoid in their own communities.
1
@Hellen
Why are you so sure these women are not doing exactly that. All extraordinary women who to date, have received no backlash from their constituents. Might be they are unicorns in Congress who can walk and chew gum at the same time. Fact check yourself.
@Leslie
Fact checks show their districts are some of the worst in the nation.
I suggest that Donald look at his wife, who is an immigrant from a country that was torn apart by political and economic stresses, and repeat to her what he has just said to these women of our Congress. Is it her color that exempts her from being called an immigrant? He has children of immigrant wives, should they too be forced to return to their “parent’s’ country of birth?
1
I doubt that Trump would ever say those things directly to the Representatives' faces. I think they should request a sit down meeting with him and ask him to repeat the things he tweeted about them to them in person. It is obvious that he uses the medium of Twitter to sow division and hate, and that he hides behind his tech devices while saying big things that he knows will land with a bang and distract from, let's see . . . Acosta taking leave because Trump's old pal Jeffrey Epstein is in jail? Mueller about to testify? The mess with the census? The debacle of the detention camps and family separation? Mueller about to testify? One could go on. It's not that Trump's not a racist, he is. I just wish that more attention was paid to how he says things - Twitter - and why, because the what can change hourly and according to his whims.
2
If you look at Trump interviews from the 1980s and 1990s he is like a totally different person. He's always been a self-promoter but wasn't always this bombastic. In early interviews with Letterman, Oprah and Donahue (available on YouTube), he comes off as quieter (if resolute) and sometimes, dare I say it, even thoughtful.
What happened? Is it age, or an evolving marketing strategy, or what? Even the NY Times used to give him glowing coverage. Despite a past that has been reexamined since he became political, no one ever seriously considered him racist or hateful, let alone a traitor or criminal. You could not imagine the Trump of that era tweeting some of the things he does today, let alone phrasing his thoughts the way he does.
I'm left wondering who is the real Trump. Either way, each incarnation was sustained for years and years. He seems to be an enigma that somehow has no secrets, a cipher who is always in focus.
Like him or loathe him, whether he serves two terms or barely makes it through one, he is destined to be one of the most objectively fascinating people to ever have held the office. He will keep historians very busy for generations.
1
@DZ Very true in a very tragic way.
I read his remarks-he was making many different points. The first was that the Congresswoman born in Africa who supports open borders, might learn quite a bit about the quality of life in the United States if she went back to Africa to compare it- or perhaps he meant that if she was so unhappy in the US why does she not just leave it. The OCS squad is irrational. They are almost pure emotion- collective unconscious bees. Self-loathing is a pitiful sight. Telling people who hate where they live to move seems like obvious common sense.
1
What is surprising is not that Trump said this - he has proven repeatedly, on practically every front, that he is unprincipled - but that Republican elected officials lack both the courage and the character to put an end to this awfulness.
1
trump had been accused of assault by multiple women and yet he was still elected. He bragged about it. Epstein was welcomed back by the elite after his time in prison. We now learn that Epstein and trump held a party where they were the only men with lots of teenage girls. And each man went into bedrooms with the girls repeatedly. Now trump is publicly distancing himself from Epstein but behind the scenes is obviously instructing AG Barr to get involved to stymie legal process (re Epstein) as he’s been doing with the Mueller report. This is our president folks!
1
I will go back where I came from - ‘somewhere over the rainbow, where skies are Blue’. And I am taking Toto with me.
1
How can Republican members of Congress ad Senate keep quiet about this? Do they agree with Trump? History tells us that silence over evil is evil, too.
The 4 congresswomen have raised controversial issues and should have shown more maturity at various times. But they really do seem to be sincere in caring about the social and financial condition of communities (of all races) across the country. They are putting their reputations on the line even though I don't always agree with them. Ignore Trump- he's frustrated and unhappy. He gripes about everything and everybody. I didn't vote for him because he wasn't qualified. What difference does it make that I don't like him? I see too much of him in many people I meet- even myself on a bad day. Impulse control, knowledge, statesmanship- He lacks 99% of the qualities he's supposed to have. He fumes and spews nastiness constantly and publicly.
Will the "base" ever give in and pick somebody else next time??
130
@flyinointment
It is because he is the president of the US that utterly unprecedented and immoral, racist tweets cannot and should not be ignored, by the free media of ANY democracy.
And yes, of course, the only reason why he sends these tweets is because he needs to fire up his base now that it became clear that he won't build any wall and that he deported even less people than Obama.
But the only reason why racist tweets work, to fire up America's conservatives to vote, is because they are mainly copy-pastes from the worst Fox News' lines of the day. That's why Trump needs a part-time job watching Fox News (called "executive time" in his schedule).
It's Fox News that aligns the troops, day after day, creating a bubble of "alternative facts" where non Republicans (and as a consequence non white conservative middle aged men) are literally demonized, their records ignored, words distorted and taken out of context ... all in order to avoid ANY possibility of having a real, respectful debate among Americans who think differently.
Trump is the GOP's perfect leader because he adores being an actor (role for which he trained ten years, on tv) in a play where he basically has to do nothing but watching tv and tweeting, to then receive all the praise of his voters, and on top of that, access to the highest office in the world.
Ignoring Trump means ignoring the top of the iceberg, which in turn might lead us to ignoring the iceberg. But that's not how it will go away ...
1
@flyinointment. Ah, it’s their fault. Why didn’t I think of that: women, women of color, speaking their minds. They should have known better.
“He’s unhappy?” Are you kidding? He’s the personification of entitlement: a criminal because he believes the world is “his oyster,” a rapist because he believes women are not individuals but objects to serve him, a racist because he believes people of color are in his way, a traitor because he believes this country is here to serve him. That’s what entitlement is, and there is no distinction between him, his party and his voters.
1
@flyinointment
They are targeting the seats of Native American and Black lawmakers who don't agree with them. It makes me wonder who they really work for because they certainly don't represent me. I am tired of the media promoting them as the spokespersons for all liberals, progressives and so called people of color. They are just as ignorant as Trump.
Donald admitted to liking how his tweets had the power to "blow up" the media. Good job, top page of NYT. I'm white, and I will be using the president's comments when talking to my son about race, to high-light the persecution people face in this country whose skin happens to be a different color.
I've been struggling for a while to figure out who Donald Trump is, pretty clear now.
I think he speaks out loud what a lot of Americans think but in the post civil rights era didn't feel they could say. It is odd how the victimizers are so vociferous about being victimized. I wonder if it has always been this way. It's as if to feel confident they need to make sure there is always a someone who is a lesser than them. Steeping on someone else to maintain your power is abhorrent, when it is the President of the United States it means we no longer have a democracy, where all men and women are created equal. Republicans, who I would of thought swore an oath to preserve this very Republic, seem just fine with that. What will the rest of us do to step up? What legacy do we want the next generation to inherit? "Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
156
@JC You are very right . Trump pleases the uneducated by saying the nasty things the frustrated could not say and like that he rallied almost half of the voters ( less 3 millions a bit more educated ) .
@JC My Irish Dad's way of explaining racism to us as little kids, in the London of the early 1950's, was to say 'If Irish people were green, every one at the bustop who had a gripe with the Irish could have a go at you.' We had all been born in London and only ever thought of ourselves as British. It was a clear message of unfairness easily understandable by little kids. It has stuck with me forever. There was a time in London when signs would be up at boarding house windows 'No blacks, No dogs, No Irish' but once it passed we could slip away into the crowd - not so easy if we had been green. I passed it on to my grandchildren who are half German "If Germans were orange etc etc' Thanks Dad!!
You touched on something I have noticed too. Self-pity is the ultimate rationale for aggression. This card is being played hard by the MAGA populists. Recalls an Alan Ginsburg poem: "Hypocrisy is the key to Selffulfilling prophecy."
Those waiting for a presidential comment from Trump will probably never hear one. The comments on the congresswomen are not the way to express disagreement with their style or substance. But we know that.
42
@Apple Jack
Those Congresswomen must be in seventh heaven right now. Trump just gave them a true gift.
His divisive rants over immigration policies are totally aiming at next election.
Unless Democrats draw the clearer line between ideology and
practicality on this issue, I'm afraid they may loose the ground,
49
@uji10jo. This is not about immigration: you’re spouting bigoted tropes that all people of color are peripheral or questionable Americans. These women are American, 3 of them American born.
I think he’s done this now to eclipse new revelations from the British ambassador i.e., that Trump blew up the Iran deal just to spite President Obama and had absolutely no thought or plan about what to do once he did it.
131
This revelation was not news. Trump has axed every initiative put forth by Obama that he possibly can.
This is not about immigration, although DJT has issues with immigration. This is about getting cheers from the crowd. It could be dog food if he found the crowd cheering. Don't oversell his intelligence or real strategy. Ego, pure and simple.
93
@Tom "We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently and lawfully to become immigrants in this country." Obama 2005.
“We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it”. Bill Clinton 1995.
"Illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple. When we use phrases like 'undocumented workers,' we convey a message to the American people that their government is not serious about combating illegal immigration, which the American people overwhelmingly oppose." Chuck Schumer 2009.
Secure Fence Act of 2006, which called for construction of 700 miles of fencing/wall and enhanced surveillance technology, such as unmanned drones, ground-based sensors, satellites, radar coverage and cameras. Sen. Chuck Schumer and then-Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were among a bipartisan majority that voted in favor of the legislation, and it was signed into law by President George W. Bush.
1
@Jim
There is a question about immigration and a question about race and the President conflates them. We have millions of illegal immigrants in this country who came through Canada and overstayed their VISAs. Have they been picked up in this weekend raids? Crickets.
Agreed, “don’t oversell his intelligence or strategy”. But don’t accept the vile racism and monumental idiocy either, whether it comes from the wretched Donald Trump or the compromised and complicit Republican Party.
Check the political tactics re the president's racist tweet. Launched during the time ICE is moving nationwide to sweep people up off our streets, out of their cars, their homes. ICE will accost brown skinned people no matter who they are or what their country of origin. They will be at the DMV, in our court houss waiting for immigrant looking people to show up. Does this remind us of something? Of course, pre-war Europe. And ICE will try and keep this as invisible as possible.
Another tactic associated with this tweet is that people are responding with comments to this article about Trump's racism but we are not in the streets stopping people from being swept up, possibly injured, taken from their families, put in a filthy camp, deported to who knows where. This reminds me of California and the Japanese internment sweep where families lost their lands, house, businesses no matter how long they had been in the country.
And with all the smoke and fire billowing up from Trump's clearly racist language, no one is helping these people about to or already swept up by ICE.
His behavior lures us to look one way and away from or to forget vital issues of the day.
62
Actually people are helping - have you heard of the ICE chasers? Folks tracking the Raines and handing out flyers so people know their rights. Not to say we shouldn’t do more.
34
The people who are being “swept up” are those comparative few who have gone through the process set up by Congress and have been adjudicated deportable. They have exhausted their claim to stay. Are you admitting, as seems fair to infer from Democrat hysteria over this issue, that there is no justification for deporting anyone? The latter, coupled with the Democrat candidates’ unanimous position on decriminalizing crossing the border, equals open borders and most are smart enough to realize this.
What do Trump’s comments suggest about his intentions? Is he getting tired of attacking just those without documents? Is he testing the water to see if he can now start going after all recent Hispanic immigrants and various other immigrants of color? And when his base gets bored with that, who's next?
We should all be out in the streets in protest.
94
@Barbara I guess he is about to recommend deporting all American citizens he dislikes. Putin is really getting his money's worth with Comrade Trumpov. He is damaging the US and weakening our alliances and launching trade wars and pulling out of an arms deal which he had criticized but has no idea what should replace it. He proposed a number of things in the campaign (major infrastructure improvements, major health care reforms--comprehensive coverage, lower costs, more choices) that he has done nothing about since he took office. It's easier to tweet stupid and poisonous ideas and tell more lies than any other president in history.
1
@Barbara
It won't just be immigrants. Don't forget Trump was schooled by Cohn who deployed the McCarthy playbook. Trump is teeing up using his power to target anyone he wants to declare a security risk. People are not in the streets because there is an undercurrent of fear just below the surface. He wants a secret police state with those MAGA hat people as storm troupers.
1
This may be a minor point compared to the obvious racism, but the current Republican line of thinking is that members of Congress should have no input into how government is run?
66
America is in the beginnings of a civil war.
This time there will be no reconstruction!
47
@New World
I agree with you and I'm afraid. Not afraid for me, I'm only on this earth for another 10+ years.
I'm afraid for my nephew, whose only 25 and is just getting his life started.
1
And this time the enemy isn't confined to a particular region.
1
It's been a cold civil war the moment Obama was elected.
This too will be forgotten by next November. The "squad" will continue to make ridiculous statements as will the President. The majority of the Dem candidates will continue to make outrageous claims. As of today all is going well for the US economy. Peace is as hand. I just don't see President Trump losing to any of the present candidates.
40
@Donald Peace is at hand? Where is that? We'll see how the economy is doing by then. Lots of voters care about presidential character, and Trump has given those voters a great deal to be concerned about.
@Donald all is NOT going well for the environment - upon which our economy is based. Trump's deliberate destructive actions toward our environment will make our grandchildren question our sanity.
We will not let this be forgotten. I am loud and vicious.
1
The mistake Democrats are making is to respond to his attacks and they are unending and vicious. They have to take the fight to him, which they are refusing or don't know how to do.
Witness the fear of holding Impeachment hearings, they are shaking in their shoes, boots or their Manolos. There is no sense in making brave but empty statements like "we want him imprisoned," to actually do their constitutional duty. if you have him on his back foot all the time, Trump is just a weak man, flailing and shaking his fist at the moon.
23
@Gary Valan There is no sense in impeachment proceedings when they don't have the votes to remove him in the senate. Surely you understand that simple fact.
1
Let's see what Susan Collins is going to do. Will she follow her predecessor as senator from Maine Margaret Chase Smith who was willing to stand up to Joe McCarthy or will she continue to be a feckless follower of Trump.
86
@Steve
She has never, ever been a "follower" of Trump. Some people haven't forgiven her for following her heart - and the evidence - in disbelieving the extremely shaky accusations against Bret Kavanaugh. Collins was correct on that issue, even though I thoroughly opposed the Kavanaugh nomination (unrelated to the unsubstantiated charges). But a supporter of Trump she has never been.
I predict she will denounce Trump very quickly.
@Steve
She may say something vague and halfhearted but it'll be meaningless. Tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires are far more important to Collins - she has proven that over and over again
@Steve Susan Collins sold out the last of her self respect in the last Congress. She will retire to the dustbin of nobodies forgotten to history because she is just another Washington sleaze windbag who gave up every first principal she ever had in the quest for power and never accomplished anything of any remote significance or importance to her constituents.
Go ladies! Don’t back down! We as a country need to move forward - and that means giving all a voice including long overdue female voice and non whites. We are rotting from the inside and we must cut out the cancer of the 1% controlling everything!!!
44
"go back to your countries, fix it and come back and tell us how its done.".???...except that the US has meddled in all the places these womens' ancestors came from: slavery (Presley), oppression + colonialism (Ocasio-Cortez), covert/clandestine operations (Talib + Omar). Same goes for Central American at the border (Iran Contra ring a bell?). We should all be enraged, and we should all be grateful that these women have chosen to sand up to our bullies. THEY ARE TRYING TO PUT A STOP TO AMERICA's UNENDING GLOBAL TERROR and I thank them for it.
58
@M Stop shouting. I really could care less about all this so called "injustice" you scream about. I care very much for the fate of this country and these people who you applaud are dividing the party at a time when everything needs to be thrown at Trump. He is the enemy. He and the Republican Party. If they don't recognize that then they do not care about this nations' future.
1
Trump's family has no more legitimate right to be here than anyone else's. In came the whites and laid down their own rules about what to do with someone else's land, and now the Trumpies are so high and holy about who belongs here. A 16-year old Friedrich Trump arrived from Germany *illegally*. Had he been sent back Donald Trump would never have been born.
88
@Joe
If only...
Can someone remind Donny that there are many of us who would pay to have him repatriated in the land of his ancestors? Thanks.
125
No interest, thanks but no thanks. He is a beautiful product of America. Keep him.
Germany will politely decline, I imagine Scotland will too.
They wouldn't want another one like him...at least I hope they don't.
1
Not my president. Not in our name.
86
That Republicans refusal to criticize Trump shows that for once and for all that their party has become a party of, by, and for white people.
The party of Lincoln has become the party of the Ku Klux Klan.
81
@Steve
How convenient.
How many Democrats refuse to condemn the hateful comments of AOC and Ilhan Omar? As to the Republicans, watch how many come out on Monday to condemn Trump's latest idiotic tweet. The list will be long.
@Steve Trump only represents a minority of the white population, too.
How's about POTUS asking FLOTUS to go back to her country?
219
@BB
From one BB to another. I couldn’t say it better. Trump married women born in other countries who can barely speak English, family of his recent wife lives in this country and enjoy all the privileges most people who are born in this country are denied. One who lives in a glass house shouldn’t throw rocks.
@BB Melania isn't an issue here, as she ins't a threat to anybodys life and health. But Donald clearly is. Shouldn't some natives ask him to get into a canoo paddeling back to good ol' Germany, where his ancestors came from? Not that there are a lot of people, that might *like* to take im there, but he might expirience due process as refugee there, and than pursue a political career in the 'AFD' (a right wing party)
@BB, not to mention FLOTUS actually sponsored her parents thanks to chain migration. Once that happened, Trump said STOP no more chain migration. huh
1
..Trump is really saying that if you criticize this country you are not a true American...that you are unpatriotic... - and that is something that resonates with his supporters.
.. and its a tool that comes right out of the populist/fascist playbook..
... The question is .. are the Dems going to take the bait.?
-After all, it was AOC & her chief of staff who started using the race card.. against fellow Democrats.. And that was an invitation for Trump to join in the party.
.. --If the conversation becomes about race and patriotism.. then Trump has succeeded in his little game.
23
@mike Unless you have missed the past two years, Trump has continually played the race card: both as a candidate, and then as a sitting POTUS. This has nothing to do with AOC or the Dems -- but an inveterate lying, misogynist who is not blowing a dog whistle to his base, but shouting through a bullhorn.
The Dems should take this 'bait': Clearly call out Trump for who he is. And, then impeach him. Any member of the GOP who does not clearly denounce the POTUS' racist statement is complicit in supporting this divisive tactic, and not worthy of representing a country of immigrants. Period.
62
I am disgusted over and over again by Trump’s ignorance regarding the strength of the melting pot that is US. His malevolence towards true Americans exercising their freedom of speech is despicable. Please stop your bullying. I’m tired of being embarrassed by you.
89
The way to defang the thug inhabiting the WH is to begin now, on the local level to register and energize voters. Please consider adopting some of these action items:
1) Be certain you and other good citizens around you opposed to the present administration and GOP Congress are registered to vote. Register voters or re-register those people wrongfully evicted from the rolls.
2) If you can't find your local party committee, contact your state party and ask them to refer you. The links for all the state parties are here: https://asdc.democrats.org/state-parties/ set up sites and people Help phone bank, door knock, and door-bell for local, state, and federall Democrats and for issues of merit. I’ve done them all, and it’s rewarding, sometimes fun, and you’ll meet other like-minded people.
3) If ready, prepare yourself to run for local office, for school board, town council, county commissioner, etc. Get, read, and re-read a book like "The Campaign Manager: Running and Winning Local Elections." You'll be smarter than the rest of the field, even on your first try. One of our local retired gynecologists did just that.
4) Join up with others to help train future candidates for office. Find some honest, principled, and electable people. Start a campaign committee and put together a campaign.
5) Forward this info to like-minded people via email, social media, or twitter.
Be politically active & encourage others. For action to be effective, 2020 is now.
46
Wrestle with a pig; everyone gets slimed, and the pig likes it.
Vote a pig into office; everyone gets slimed…
62
1) What testimony is happening next week that he has to distract from?
2) Are we still giving the benefit of the doubt as to whether or not he and his voters are racists?
This is not about immigration (as I see some are spouting on this thread); it's about the inherent racism that permeates our culture, and that this disgusting parasite gives voice to.
49
They should go back to the planets they came from. And they should take Trump with them.
12
There is not much more we can say about this juvenile, bigoted fool...but we can ask that he go forthwith to that place which he will inevitably spend the rest of eternity.
33
Our country needs to quit Twitter en masse. Stop giving this dumpster fire oxygen.
82
Such a nasty,nasty man. The sort it would give me grim pleasure to see locked into medieval stocks in Times Square with every passerby hurling rotten tomatoes at him.
47
Trump needs to resign now - there is something terribly wrong with his mental health. He is embarrassing the nation that he is supposed to represent and protect. I am so sorry that these four humans have to endure his insulting and cowardly behavior.
69
Perhaps Melania - the First Lady - should go back and fix Slovenia then she can show us how to do it.
99
@Scrumper,
Kindly give Melania proper honorifics:
she is the First Lady / Third Wife.
@Scrumper
That would mean she has to work and she appears to avoid any semblance of work.
@Scrumper. Along with Melania he could send his three older anchor babies back to whichever home country it is their mother came from too.
He has asked that three women born in the US go back to their “home countries” after all. Getting rid of the three older Trumps, along with Melania at least, would immediately improve the moral and civil tone of the US.
Trump lives in such a bubble of narcissism that it is impossible for him to acknowledge his own origins in the US as coming from a draft dodging grandfather who made his way in the US running a brothel and exploiting women.
One of the problems with ugly and dangerous speech like Trump’s is that it is the thin edge of the wedge, the slippery slope, and all the other cliches for “heading into a loss of civil rights,hatred,chaos and conflicts.”
First, Trump is a bully and a coward and threw that out there so all his idiot supporters would rally behind him and taunt the Dems which they predictably did based on some of the comments I read. Second, Pelosi et al need to move on. It’s all about divide and conquer so get your acts together so this doesn’t happen again. Third, the field of Dem candidates needs to shrink. Some of you need to drop out. Seriously. Finally, what do you think the Freedom Fighters were all about anyway? They risked life and limb to get people registered to vote. Get.the.vote.out. Full stop.
39
trumps daily dose of ugliness is the catnip that sustains his base. Time for him to go back to the manhattan billionaires castle that he came from. Built by immigrants that he ripped off, and financed by fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, russian oligarchs and deutsche bank, its his own gold plated sewer.
55
Now is the perfect time to introduce articles of impeachment!
29
@Taylor,
Correct.
Except that Pelosi would rather sip Rosé with her co-enabler McConnell rather than do her job.
He stood in front of a group of Jewish people and said that he and Mike Pence "love your country" Israel. Everyone is the "other" to him.
28
Follow the roadmap to impeachment that Mueller laid out. Pelosi is unwittingly accommodating a racist wannabe tyrant.
15
Just how long do we have to be tolerant of Fox News (in the interest of First Amendment protection) before that media outlet totally destroys the fabric of our country ? When is enough enough? Allowing Fox News to be beamed into our homes is little less than Tobacco company execs ringing the door bell to offer free cigarettes to our teenage kids.
38
We must be tolerant of the rights of those we despise the most. Otherwise, freedom would be just a charade.
@Plato fox isn’t beamed in. It’s cable, mostly. People pay for it!
The real target her is Ilhan Omar. Why?
1. She is black
2. She is a Muslim
3. She is a woman
4. She had the courage to take on some powerful & untouchable interests.
58
@Har, she also wears a hijab. Which makes her courage that much more visible.
2
Trump just likes to press peoples’ buttons. That’s pretty much his whole policy book.
22
I can't go back to the country I came from, the USSR, which no longer exists. But some aspects of Mr. Trump's tenure -- campaigns against "enemies of the people", cultivation of the leader's personality cult, calculated ostracism of ethnic minorities -- are bringing my old country right back to me.
116
USSR was another, clumsy name for Russian Empire, simply called Russia. Such still exists, so if Mr. Shlyachter wants to go back he can easily do so.A major cause of the USSR dissolution was its administrative structure of ethnic Republics ( Stalin's idea) which fortified ethnic animosity. US seems to reach a comparable level of ethnic tensions with both major parties playing the opposite sides of the schism. Like Soviet myth of "new Soviet man" transcending ethnicity, so the American illusion of melting pot has backfired. The Donald is a mild symptom of this crisis of American project.
@Ilya Shlyakhter Plus the Russians helped him win the White House, and he has worked very hard to stop investigations into Russia's actions and done virtually nothing to prevent more Russian meddling.
1
Election rhetoric or otherwise, the sad truth simply is that Trump is the mouthpiece for all the European descendants who feel that people of alternate origin are second class citizens of the US. Such rhetoric might be considered archaic and hateful but there is a vast section of the white American population who unfortunately feel the same way as does Trump. They are our neighbors, colleagues, mechanics, grocery shop clerks etc and sometimes even our friends. And that is way more scary than anything Trump has to say about Tlaib, Omar, Pressley or Cortez.
37
I hope this grotesque statement by the President will cause leader Pelosi to stop disparaging these women and start embracing the fact that they are giving the Democratic party the swift kick in the rear that it's been needing for many many years. It's time for the eighty year olds to step aside and let a new generation take over. I say this with great respect to my fellow older folks: devote your energy to train the young people and let them do the work.
16
That action would guarantee s Trump victory in 2020.
The correct expression with regard to the Congresswomen from Minnesota, Michigan and New York (the squad) by Donald Trump would have been: "Go back to the countries, your parents came from."
At the risk of appearing the devil's advocate, despite all the ugly problems America has, its liberty, democracy, civil societies, conduct in public life including conditions in detention centers are way better than places like Somalia, Palestine or Puerto Rico.
And growing up in the first generation immigrant families, these Congresswomen, like any immigrant, must be aware of such differences.
However, Donald Trump and his political or media backers should also know they are not the representatives of their parents' countries but the citizens of the United States and they are asking for improvement on their country's side, that is, the United States.
The Trump administration must also be aware that the number of foreign born or immigrant elected representatives in the United States at local, state or federal level is growing rapidly. As the article notes, there are now as many as 52 voting members of the Congress and 16 in the Senate who are immigrants or children of immigrants.
There will be chorus of demands of all types by these American citizens who are of non-White and non-Caucasian ancestry.
Will DT advise every one to go back to the countries of their origin?
Also, this race card and the virtual 'open border' demand play to the advantage of DT and isolation of the Liberals.
7
@Binoy Shanker Prasad
Puerto Rico is part of America. Nevertheless, thank you for engaging thoughtfully.
1
Instead of losing supporters, this tweetstorm has probably gained him a few.
11
Does Trump realize his wife, the mother of his son, is from another country?
38
The difference is that one of them doesn’t talk back.
And his own mother and his grandfather are from other countries .
As was the mother of his first three children and his own mother .....
Trump is Miller’s and Bannon’s mouthpiece. Seriously, the man can’t even stick to the teleprompter much less promote a white supremacist’s agenda. Sheesh.
9
And like always you don’t hear any word from the Republicans. Just wonder if they are still existing? They truly became insignificant under King Trump.
20
I say to all those with computer hacking skills, block this racist feed by all means necessary. Shut down this hate rage from a delusional despot. Stop this please. At once.
14
Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, should be asked: Do you agree with President Trump, the leader of your party?
The Gutless Old Party has become pretty adept at duck-and-cover, so I imagine we’ll sett a lot of that. But it’s entertaining.
8
This distraction from the real issues everyday Americans experience- health care issues, cost of prescriptions, housing costs, college debt and cost of college, wage stagnation, corporate greed, environmental pollution, rising sea levels, Global warming crisis, etc etc.- has to stop. NYT- stop giving space to the idiots in the White House. Please pound out article after article on what affects regular people everyday of the week and how the WH is doing nothing for us! I am sick of the mentally ill person leading this country.
28
...and the rocket takes off. He is loving this.
16
Pres. Trump has done it again.
He has deftly hijacked the media's attention and set the agenda for the whole news cycle.
Trump knows that whatever he says, no matter how ridiculous, THAT immediately grabs the news cycle.
This is the most important thing Trump ever said: "I know how to work the media in a way that they will never take the lights off of me."
This is why he says outrageous, obviously false things. It sets the agenda for the media. Now everyone is babbling about his clearly ridiculous comment.
He must giggle at this...
"I said the STUPIDEST thing today! Get this: I said, Seagulls cause global warming and EVERYONE is yapping about it. Right now, ornithologists are on MSNBC and CNN denouncing me! The Audubon Society just called a press conference and everyone is going to run it live, just like they covered me in the campaign. This is beautiful! Now we can get down to work completely unobserved."
It is classic diversion.
He learned it from Ronald Reagan. Remember these:
"All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk."
"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."
"Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders."
"We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry every night. Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet."
All con artists know how to misdirect the crowd.
Did Trump actually utter the words "their countries"? That's how he grabs the attention.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
31
The House should formally censure Trump for these deplorable threats against elected officials. This will force the Senate to more formally condone Trump's despicable conduct when McConnell does not reciprocate with the lower chamber.
This will also give Pelosi the opportunity to gauge public opinion and possibly lay the groundwork for impeachment for obstruction of justice. However, she's only willing to stick her neck out so much for 'four votes'.
24
Excellent idea. Ms. Pelosi? Do you read the NYT comments section?
Trump has basically declared war: It's his band of white racists vs. everyone else. If you think it's ugly now, just wait until next year. This is flat out fascism, folks, and that never ends well.
43
No one can convince me the United States military and social workers familiar with the political environment in Central America knew about this massive wave of immigrants long ago. That said, Trump also knew it would happen and did nothing about it until it reached the boiling point. This is hard-ball politics Republican-style and there are unsophisticated voters not only in solidly red states but swing states as well gullible enough to believe Democrats support open borders and will cast their votes for Trump and Republican politicians. They perceive Trump as their savior and will vote accordingly when Trump and the Republicans in Congress let this crisis come to a boil doing nothing to diffuse it before it happened. In a close election game, set and match Trump and the Republicans. Though these are strange times we live in, and anything is possible.
3
Tucker Carlson's statement is telling: "Our country rescued Ilhan Omar ... We didn’t do it to get rich; in fact, it cost us money."
Who looks at the world like this? Who bases the value of any action, any decision, on the basis of whether it will make you rich? He's like bad parents telling their child he/she had better appreciate them because "you cost us money." The irony of his remarks is that he is chastising Omar for expressing herself freely without fear of prosecution or even arrest - in other words, for embracing the freedom of being an American. She had the temerity to use that freedom to say we can do better. Carlson may not have told Omar to go back from whence she came, but he certainly implied she had better know her place. Sound familiar?
36
A lot of excellent comments to the article and I sincerely hope a few of the Democratic Party leaders' staff read them and pass them along. These egregiously ridiculous things that roll out of Trump's mouth are often said with a pre-determined goal. Trump knows he'll never come close to a popular vote majority so he realizes that he has to appeal to a certain voter in a few key districts and states. That's exactly what he's doing, and the responses he's eliciting from his Democratic opponents feed into that narrative.
The Democrats seem to be promoting an illegal immigration policy and that's never going to fly with most of America. I completely agree that our currently system is broken, and that both sides have made it worse. And I agree that Trump's administration is needlessly treating detainees in a very inhumane manner that itself violates numerous laws. But, no country in the world has an open border policy and we should follow the laws we have on the books until our properly-elected representatives manage to change them.
22
I know we’re far from perfect up here, but America, here’s your problem: too many people just don’t like brown people. And sadly, I don’t think this is repairable.
I weep for what I thought you were.
30
He does nothing to harm the character of others with his tweets and words, nor does he harm me in any way. He simply harms his own character in each instance. For that, I feel sorry for him, and since we have no control over his behavior, why do we care at all? His rule, in time, will be completely forgotten.
5
Not only is this brutally racist, it's also extremely sexist. Targeting four congresswomen, in particular, to go back to their countries (which is not even factual as they have US citizenships and have spent their lifetime in the US) is just disgusting as a person.
I believe in the freedom of speech, but that does not mean he can get away with these kinds of irrational bullying, especially if that is coming from the President. We really need to hold him accountable for his words and make our voices heard that this is plainly unacceptable.
11
See. It will be easy for Trump to win. He knows how to rev up his base. Americans deserve what they are going to get. I’m getting out of this country.
9
Every day is just another appalling statement from Trump... and every day he controls the media. Note how scarce it is to see the Democratic leadership in the media. Let's face facts... Democrats get what they deserve... mediocre, inarticulate, ineffective, complacent "leaders" in Schumer and Pelosi. The Democrats can no longer just sit back and let Trump control the narrative. The Democrats need new leadership. We are stuck with Pelosi until November 2020, but is there any reason Schumer needs to stay on as Senate Minority Leader?
5
The Congresswomen Trump attacked are not always right, but they ARE trying to help fix the place Mr Trump is trying to break. He on the other hand excels ONLY in cruelty. Good for the Apprentice. Not good for the President.
10
We must stop this awful human, trump. Congress do your job and run the country. I am heartsick that there will be no consequence to outrages. Go back where you came from? Who does he think we are?
10
Trumps’ paternal grandfather was an immigrant from Germany, made his money through owning brothels and because he was a draft dodger lost his German (Bavarian) citizenship and came to America. Great start for the family and Donald is a chip off the old block. He is increasing taking his political philosophy to an anti-liberalism, nationalist and contempt for international norms, which is the same path, ironically, that the National Socialist German Workers’ party took, which also had a voter base of around the same percentage as Trump. The rest is a very ugly chapter in human history but the parallels continue to build.
31
This is a vile and deeply insecure unhappy man. We have to rid ourselves of this human plague or our country is lost.
23
When will this Joke-turned-nightmare end?
12
"Trump Tells Freshman Congresswomen to ‘Go Back’ to the Countries They Came From."
So says the man with two immigrant wives and a slew of anchor babies.
35
Add to that ... his so-called chain migration. Trumps in-laws became citizens last year
1
Doesn’t this qualify as inflammatory hate speech?
Maybe Germany has the right idea about this too, and not just free college.
10
@Lilly
The German Model? No thanks. Censorship and criminalization of politically non-correct speech can cut two ways, Watch what you wish for.
9
My heart breaks for you, America.
23
@Christian Hagen
I was in your beautiful country in 1971.
Norwegians had to wait two years to get a phone then.
Good government and good fortune has elevated Norway to an exemplary nation.
Meanwhile America heads for civil war.
8
Trump is a racist and plays to the most odious parts of a society riven by the politics of identity. Are others who fan those flames in the name of "justice" less culpable?
2
This week we had Democrat mayors, Nancy Pelosi and the “Squad” providing information to illegal aliens so they could evade legal deportation orders. We had liberal activists take down an American flag and replace it with a Mexican flag at a detention center. We have Democratic candidates calling for free healthcare for illegal aliens and open borders. We have Democratic leaders turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism by their members. I have never once heard Omar, AOC or Tlaib say one positive thing about their country. Sorry, but there’s a good reason why Trump’s tweets resonate with tens of millions of loyal Americans and it has nothing to do with racism.
24
Loyal Americans? You mean the ones who voted for the rich kid who faked a disability to avoid serving in Vietnam? The loyal Americans who support the guy who welcomed Russian support with open arms and still refuse to believe it? I could go on all day. Don’t invoke loyalty to America or patriotism while you support a man who wipes his feet on American values, laws and norms — it makes you a hypocrite.
41
What do you expect from a president who tweeted advertisements for his golf courses while Louisiana was pounded by deadly flooding? Trump cares about no one but himself. He cares about nothing but his own property.
27
@Linda, his properties were/are being care of by undocumented immigrants, galore.
1
The infighting and preening in the Democratic Party must stop NOW if we want to avoid the disaster of another four years of Trump and his utterly disgusting and destructive tweets. Let's stop making things easy for the troll in chief.
13
Article much improved over original horse-race framing.