Trump lashes out at Ilhan Omar and AOC: 'I don't even know where they came from'
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Donald Trump began the week embroiled in a racism row after attempting to exploit divisions among the opposition by telling young progressive congresswomen like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”, demanding an apology from the victims in his latest round of tweets.
Despite boasting of a 94 per cent approval rating among Republicans, the president found himself lagging behind Democratic 2020 challengers Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in a new poll conducted for NBC News/Wall Street Journal.
As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began mass deportations raids on at least 10 American cities, Mr Trump also hit out at media coverage of vice president Mike Pence's visit to a border detention centre in McAllen, Texas, on Friday, insisting the facility in question was “well run and clean” despite evidence to the contrary.
During a press conference, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, Ms Omar, and their colleagues Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib all denounced the president's attacks on them, which he doubled down on Monday afternoon at the White House.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez, finishing up her remarks, called the president "weak", and said he focuses on personal attacks because he cannot debate issues.
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"Weak minds and leaders challenge loyalty to our country in order to avoid challenging and debating the policy," Ms Ocasio-Cortez said.
"This president does not know how to defend his policies, so what he does is he attacks us personally, and that is what it is all about. He cant look a child in the face and he can't look Americans in the face and justify why this country is throwing them into cages," she continued.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives announced it would hold a vote to condemn Mr Trump's "xenophobic" remarks.
Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar repeatedly referenced conditions for migrants crossing the US-Mexico border, talking about "people in cages" and "human beings drinking from toilets".
Their criticism comes as Donald Trump's administration has taken steps to officially end asylum protections for Central American migrants arriving at the border.
Several GOP senators, and some House Republicans, say Trump has gone too far.
Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the party's 2012 presidential nominee, said: "The president failed badly."
Iowa senator Joni Ernst said Trump's comments were "not constructive".
Senator Tim Scott, of South Carolina, the only black Republican senator, said Trump made "unacceptable personal attacks" and used "racially offensive language."
Another Republican up for re-election, senator Steve Daines, of Montana, tweeted that people in his state are “sick and tired of listening to anti-American, anti-Semite, radical Democrats trash our country and our ideals.”
He said: “I stand with @realDonaldTrump.”
And Republican Texas senator John Cornyn said: “I think it’s a mistake and an unforced error. I don’t think the president is a racist.”
The Trump administration says its new regulation barring taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions will take effect immediately.
The Health and Human Services department said it will begin enforcing the ban on abortion referrals, along with a requirement that family planning clinics maintain separate finances from facilities that provide abortions.
The rule is widely seen as a blow against Planned Parenthood, which provides taxpayer-funded family planning and basic health care to low-income women, as well as abortions paid for separately.
The Trump administration has come out strongly against Facebook’s plan to create a new digital currency, as the treasury chief warned it could be used for illicit activity such as money laundering, human trafficking and financing terrorism.
Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed “very serious concerns” about the currency proposed by the social network giant, to be called Libra.
He told reporters at the White House: “This is indeed a national security issue.”
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