GREENVILLE, N.C./WASHINGTON - President
Donald Trump stepped up his vilification of four liberal
lawmakers as un-American at a raucous rally on Wednesday,
underscoring that the attacks will form a key part of his
strategy for winning re-election in 2020.
Despite criticism from Democrats that his comments about the
four minority congresswomen are racist, Trump went on an
extended diatribe about the lawmakers, saying they were welcome
to leave the country if they did not like his policies on issues
such as immigration and defending Israel.
"So these Congresswomen, their comments are helping to fuel
the rise of a dangerous, militant hard left," the Republican
president said to roars from the crowd in North Carolina, a
state seen as key to his re-election.
Trump tweeted over the weekend that the four progressive
representatives, known as "the squad" - Ilhan Omar of Minnesota,
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan
and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts - should "go back" where
they came from, even though all are U.S. citizens and three are
U.S.-born.
The aim, one source close to Trump said, was to make
Democrats look as far left as possible to moderate voters as he
girds for a tough re-election battle in November 2020.
"He is trying to make them the face of the Democratic Party
as we move closer into the 2020 cycle and he’s trying to
highlight them as a fringe crowd as much as possible so it turns
off your middle-of-the-road voters," the source said.
As Trump recounted past comments by Omar, who was born in
Somalia and emigrated to the United States as a child, the crowd
began chanting: "Send her back!"
"Tonight I have a suggestion for the hate-filled extremists
who are constantly trying to tear our country down. They never
have anything good to say. That's why I say: 'Hey, if they don't
like it, let them leave. Let them leave,'" Trump said.
Trump spent about a fifth of his freewheeling 90-minute-long
speech criticising the four lawmakers, to enthusiastic crowd
response.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner for the
Democratic 2020 presidential nomination, weighed in against
Trump's remarks via Twitter.
"These members of Congress — children of immigrants, just
like so many of us — are an example of exactly what makes
America great," Biden said on the social network.
Trump also derided Biden in his remarks and skewered other
Democrats vying to be the party's 2020 candidate.
He repeated his frequent reference to U.S. Senator Elizabeth
Warren as "Pocahontas," a dig about a controversy over her
heritage that Warren and Native American groups have complained
is racist.
WINNING TACTIC?
Trump's Twitter attacks initially caused some heartburn for
advisers who felt he had gone too far.
But two said Trump had since offered a contrasting view,
that the political views of the four lawmakers were socialist,
out of the mainstream and hateful to their home country, versus
those of the president and his flag-waving rhetoric.
"If the American people have to choose between the squad and
the president, then that's an easy decision," one adviser said.
Trump, who during his 2016 campaign voiced harsh assessments
of the state of the country, tweeted a video ahead of the rally
that featured patriotic scenes of the president meeting
Americans, with frequent images of the American flag. It ended
with the slogan: "America - One Squad Under God."
"Democrats are now the party of high taxes, high crime, open
borders, late-term abortion, intolerance and division. The
Republican Party is the party for all Americans and American
values," he said in North Carolina.
The tactic follows a well-worn path for Trump, who called
for a ban on Muslims entering the United States during his 2016
campaign. His proposal drew widespread criticism, but
Republicans overwhelmingly supported it, and it was a factor in
his victory.
Over the weekend, Trump inserted himself into what had been
an internecine Democratic Party fight pitting Omar,
Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley against House of
Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
He first defended Pelosi, then attacked the four. That
prompted Pelosi to defend her flock, prompting Trump and other
Republicans to argue the Democratic Party had shifted to the
left.
The Democratic-controlled House voted on Tuesday largely
along party lines to formally condemn Trump's remarks as
"racist."
Trump's attacks had a spur-of-the-moment quality around
which the Republican Party later built a strategy.
The tactic had worked, said Barry Bennett, who advised
Trump's 2016 campaign. "The Democratic Party last week was
trying to distance itself from the squad, and this week they’re
hugging them, and that is a massive win for Trump."
But not all Republicans were comfortable.
"I'm disappointed in the tweets," said Steve Duprey, a
member of the Republican National Committee from New Hampshire.
"I know the president is subject to lots of attacks, but he
should always try to turn the other cheek and take the high
road," Duprey said.