Trump news: US shoots down Iran drone, as FBI reveals how president tried to silence Stormy Daniels

President 'fuelling and feeding off hate', Democrats warn

Donald Trump claims he tried to stop 'send her back' chants by 'speaking very quickly'

US politicians have voiced disgust and alarm after a rally crowd responded to Donald Trump’s racist attacks on congresswoman Ilhan Omar with chants of “send her back”.

Democrats warned the president was “fuelling and feeding off hate” and “stoking the most despicable and disturbing currents in our society” by vilifying Ms Omar, a Somali refugee who arrived in the US as a child nearly three decades ago.

Senator Bernie Sanders said Mr Trump was “the most dangerous president in the history of our country,” while fellow 2020 election hopeful Elizabeth Warren called for him to face impeachment.

On Thursday, the president chided his supporters who chanted the statement at the rally, joining widespread criticism of the campaign crowd’s cry after fellow Republicans warned it could hurt the GOP in next year’s elections.

In a week that has corkscrewed daily with hostile exchanges over race and love of country, Mr Trump also claimed he had tried to stop the chant at a reelection event Wednesday night in North Carolina.

“I started speaking really quickly,” he told reporters. “I was not happy with it. I disagree with it.”

However, video shows the crowd’s “send her back” shouts resounded for 13 seconds as Mr Trump made no attempt to interrupt them. He paused in his speech and surveyed the scene, taking in the uproar.

Ms Omar responded on Thursday, telling reporters: “This is what this president and his supporters have turned our country” into, she said as she walked outside the US Capitol.

“This is not about me," she added. "This is about fighting about what this country truly should be and what it deserves to be.”

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Key Points

• Trump supporters chant 'send her back' as he attacks Ilhan Omar at rally
• President faces wave of condemnation from Democrats
• More than two thirds of Americans think Trump tweets were racist

[18 July 2019 12:53 · Chris Baynes]

A white Republican politician has defended Donald Trump’s racism by claiming to himself be a person of colour.

After being questioned about the president’s racist tweets, in which Trump told four congresswomen to “go back" to the “crime infested places from which they came," representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania told Vice News: “You know, they talk about people of colour. I'm a person of colour. I'm white. I'm an Anglo Saxon. People say things all the time, but I don't get offended.” 

Here's the full, strange story:

[18 July 2019 13:15 · Chris Baynes]

Donald Trump met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, a Yazidi genocide survivor, at the White House yesterday. 

But he seemed unfamiliar with her work, and Yazidi persecution in general, reports my colleague Richard Hall:

[18 July 2019 13:34 · Chris Baynes]

In the UK, prime ministerial candidate Jeremy Hunt has refused to say the word "racism" during an interview about Donald Trump's attacks on four congresswomen of colour.

Speaking to the BBC's Breakfast, he said he "absolutely, profoundly" disagreed with Trump's comments. But he added: 

"I'm not going to user the R-word because I do have to be responsible for the relationship between the UK and the USA and I think it would be damaging for that if I used it".

[18 July 2019 13:45 · Jon Sharman]

Mr Hunt's refusal to call Mr Trump's words "racist" echoes Boris Johnson's at last night's Tory leadership hustings.

[18 July 2019 14:00 · Chris Baynes]

Donald Trump's racist attacks on four Democratic congresswomen may have led to a wave of condemnation, but Republican strategists believe they could also lead to his re-election.

Terry Sullivan, a frequent Trump critic who managed senator Marco Rubio's 2016 election campaign, said the president was successfully getting to make "these extremely liberal, socialist, foolish congresswomen the face of the Democratic Party".

"What he's doing here is sad, but it's smart politics," he said.

Sylvester Smith, a conservative political consultant, told Sky News the president was "trying to rally his base and he's trying to do what he's always done, which is grab headlines and which he's been very successful at".

He added: "If you look at this tactic from the vantage of Trump the presidential candidate, I believe that long term it's going to be a viable tactic for a successful re-election for him."

[18 July 2019 14:20 · Chris Baynes]

The Democratic congresswomen who have been the target of Donald Trump's attacks this week were all elected in this year's midterm elections. 

Here's a look at the four women of colour who collectively call themselves "the Squad": 

[18 July 2019 14:40 · Chris Baynes]

The most search words on Merriam-Webster's online dictionary during and after Donald Trump's rally last night tell a fairly bleak story:

[18 July 2019 14:50 · Jon Sharman]

The majority of Americans think Donald Trump’s recent tweets attacking four Democratic congresswomen of colour are racist and un-American, a poll has found, writes Emma Snaith.

It comes after a separate poll found the US president’s approval rating rose among Republicans after the US president told the congresswomen to “go back” to where they came from.

While Mr Trump did not name the targets of his attack, the context of his tweet made it clear it was aimed at a group of four progressive Democratic women of colour – Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley.

[18 July 2019 15:15 · Chris Baynes]

The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee has said there is "no place" for the kind of chants heard at Donald Trump's rally last night.

But Minnesota representative Tom Emmer defended Trump himself, telling reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast "there's not a racist bone in this president's body".

He claimed the president repeatedly telling four Democratic women of colour to "go back" to the "totally broken and crime infested places from which they came" had nothing to do with race or even nationality.

Trump simply meant dissatisfied people could leave the US if they want, he suggested.

"That goes for every one of us. It has nothing to do with your race, your gender or your family history," Emmer insisted.

[18 July 2019 15:46 · Chris Baynes]

There have been a few more muted Republican murmurings of disapproval over last night's "send her back" chants.

House GOP vice-chair Mark Walker, a North Carolina representative, said he "struggled" with the chant.

He slightly feebly suggests the "phrasing" was "painful to our friends in the minority communities".

Illinois representative Adam Kinzinger is more vehement in his condemnation of the chant, which he says is "ugly, wrong, and would send chills down the spines of our Founding Fathers".

Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, who is running against Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination, warned "the soul of the GOP" was at risk: