Trump warns Maxine Waters 'be careful what you wish for' after she called for people to 'harass' administration officials

'If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant ... you create a crowd and you push back on them,' the California Democrat told rally

Donald Trump has told Congresswoman Maxine Waters to “be careful what you wish for” after she issued a call for people to “harass” members of the president’s administration in public.

The California Democrat has been criticised by both sides of the political spectrum for her comments made during a Keep Families Together protest rally, which came the day after White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant by its owner for working for Mr Trump.

“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up,” Ms Waters said. “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

“The people are going to turn on them,” Ms Waters said at the rally in Los Angeles on Saturday, referring to members of Mr Trump’s Cabinet who support his actions. ”They’re going to protest. They’re going to absolutely harass them until they decide that they’re going to tell the president, ‘No, I can’t hang with you.’”

Mr Trump responded on Twitter on by calling Ms Waters an “extraordinarily low IQ person”. Ms Waters ”called for harm to supporters... of the Make America Great Again movement”, Mr Trump wrote, adding: ”Be careful what you wish for Max!”

Nowhere in her speech did Ms Waters call for physical violence against any member of Mr Trump’s Cabinet — but Democrats admonished her for what they see as stooping to a similar level as Mr Trump.

“In the crucial months ahead, we must strive to make America beautiful again. Trump’s daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable but unacceptable,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wrote in a tweet, without expressly mentioning Ms Waters. ”As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way that achieves unity from sea to shining sea.”

Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat in New Jersey, called the remarks “unacceptable.”

“If I saw an administrator out and about there is nothing wrong with confronting that person, but not to lead with love and to do it in a way that is more reflective of the values that we are trying to reject in our country is unacceptable to me,” Mr Booker told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC.

The comments were seen by several political commentators and right-wing publications as inciting violence against Republican lawmakers and federal employees. “This is absolutely insane – and extremely dangerous,” Meghan McCain, conservative analyst and daughter to John McCain, wrote on Twitter. ”My father in law works in the administration, does this mean when we go out to dinner we should be ambushed?!?”

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News that the remarks were “very dangerous” and called upon Ms Waters to issue a public apology. Senator Jeff Flake, a retiring Arizona Republican who has repeatedly criticised MrTrump, tweeted: “Left or right, nobody deserves this kind of treatment.”