Trump Tells Congresswomen of Color to 'Go Back' to Their Countries

The Tweets

On the morning of July 14, 2019, President Trump posted a series of tweets targeting progressive Democratic congresswomen known as “The Squad.” He wrote that these “Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe,” should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” He added, “You can’t leave fast enough.”

The tweets were directed at Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Three of the four were born in the United States. Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx, Pressley in Cincinnati, and Tlaib in Detroit. Omar was born in Somalia and became a U.S. citizen in 2000 at age 17. All four were American citizens. All four were duly elected members of Congress.

”Go Back” — A Racist Classic

Telling people of color to “go back where they came from” is one of the oldest and most recognizable racist tropes in American life. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission specifically identifies it as a textbook example of discriminatory harassment. Legal experts noted that if a private employer’s manager had directed the same language at employees, it would be considered evidence of illegal discrimination in a workplace lawsuit.

Trump doubled down in the days following, showing no remorse. He tweeted that the congresswomen should apologize to the United States and Israel, and suggested that if they were unhappy, “they can leave.” At a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, on July 17, Trump mentioned Omar by name as the crowd erupted into chants of “Send her back! Send her back!” Trump paused and let the chant continue for 13 seconds before resuming his speech.

The Response

The House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning Trump’s tweets as racist, with only four Republicans voting in favor. The resolution cited Trump’s words as meeting “the combating combatting of Nazism” language in previous congressional resolutions, though Republicans largely rallied around the president. Some Republican leaders expressed discomfort with the “send her back” chants but stopped short of criticizing Trump directly.

The four congresswomen held a joint press conference in which they refused to take Trump’s bait and instead redirected attention to his policies. “This is the agenda of white nationalists,” Ocasio-Cortez said. Omar added, “He is launching a blatantly racist attack on four duly elected members of the United States of America.” Pressley noted, “This is a disruptive distraction from the issues of care, concern, and consequence to the American people.”

The Normalization of Racism

The episode was notable not just for the president’s openly racist language but for how quickly it became normalized within the Republican Party. Within days, most Republican officials had either defended Trump, deflected, or gone silent. The “send her back” chant — directed at a sitting U.S. congresswoman and naturalized citizen — echoed some of the darkest moments in American history. For many observers, it demonstrated that Trump was not merely tolerating racism among his supporters but actively cultivating it as a political strategy.