Trump's 'Go Back' Tweet Called 'Worst Error of Presidency'

With a tweet widely denounced as racist, President Trump has apparently managed to do what Nancy Pelosi was struggling to accomplish—unite the squabbling Democratic caucus. Pelosi and other Democratic lawmakers were among those slamming Trump for his remark that four progressive Democratic congresswomen should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came." Trump was also heavily criticized by Democratic 2020 contenders over the remark, and several right-wing commentators. Trump's many critics note that the four congresswomen he is believed to have been talking about, Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar, are all US citizens and all but Omar were born in the US. More:

• Silence from the GOP. Leading Republicans failed to denounce the president's insinuation that "people of color are foreigners," notes Isaac Stanley-Becker at the Washington Post. "The silence of Republican leaders appeared to suggest either that they agreed with the views expressed by their standard-bearer or that he has so effectively consolidated his control over their party that they have grown disinclined to voice dissent," he writes.

• "Worst blunder of his presidency." John Hinderaker at the usually pro-Trump Powerline blog calls the remark the "worst unforced error of his presidency." "Trump’s attack on the Squad was so foolish that I would assume it to be a case of drunk-tweeting, except that the President doesn’t drink," he writes. Steven Hayward, another Powerline writer, speculates that based on the lack of typos and random capitalization, the tweet may actually have been written by Trump aide Stephen Miller.
• AOC fires back. "Mr. President, the country I 'come from,' & the country we all swear to, is the United States," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "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."
• "Raging racist." Charles Blow at the New York Times sees the tweet as more evidence that the president is a "raging racist" with a white nationalist worldview. "The central framing of this kind of thinking is that this is a white country, founded and built by white men, and destined to be maintained as a white country," he writes. "It sees a country from which black and brown people come as deficient—'a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world'—because, at its base, it sees black and brown people as deficient."
• Clinton weighs in. Hillary Clinton responded to Trump with a tweet: "They're from America, and you're right about one thing: Currently their government is a complete and total catastrophe."
• Anger in Hollywood. Breitbart rounds up some of the outraged tweets from Hollywood. One of the most succinct came from Morgan Freeman, who tweeted "Trump is a racist," repeated 10 times.

• "The president is a racist." It should not be news to anybody that Trump is a racist in his words and actions, writes Goldie Taylor at the Daily Beast, listing examples of racist behavior going back to the 1970s. "Trump is not a fine person. His words Sunday were not racially 'charged,' 'fueled,' or “tinged,'" she writes. "They were unapologetically racist. And, if you support him, so are you."
• "Rips his shirt off." "Bonchie" at RedState.com wonders why Trump is making things so difficult for the people who are trying to get him re-elected. "Democrats are collapsing in on themselves," he writes. "All he has to do was sit back and not distract them. Instead he rips his shirt off and runs out on the battlefield screaming to be shot at."
• Trump doubles down. The president, predictably, doubled down on his remarks with more tweets Sunday night, the Hill reports. "So sad to see the Democrats sticking up for people who speak so badly of our Country and who, in addition, hate Israel with a true and unbridled passion. Whenever confronted, they call their adversaries, including Nancy Pelosi, 'RACIST,'" Trump tweeted. "Their disgusting language and the many terrible things they say about the United States must not be allowed to go unchallenged."

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