It wasn’t just Ilhan Omar — Trump disparaged 8 women during his speech in North Carolina

President Donald Trump, amid a rant about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a Somali refugee turned Congress member, promoted his fans to break out into chants of “send her back!”

He also went after each of the four members of the so-called “Squad” — which in addition to Omar includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) — with whom he’s been embroiled in a public feud since he posted racist tweets last Sunday asking them to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

Trump’s naming of these women in particular is no accident. They symbolize the rising power of progressive women of color in America. Though they are all from very liberal districts, something even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi likes to point out, they represent a deep fear among the conservative base: that their grip on power is slipping to the AOCs and Ilhan Omars of the world.

Trump also went on to speak negatively about four other women. In fact, he didn’t have a single positive thing to say about any of the eight women he brought up on Wednesday.

He’s making what some would say is a risky bet. Though polling shows that a large majority of public disapproves of his racist statements about the Democratic congresswomen and that he’s more unpopular with women than with men, he knows that it could also fire up his base to turn out. Trump seems to believe that stoking the grievances of white voters is what got him victory in 2016, and he’s hoping to do it again in 2020. His speech in North Carolina indicates just how key white men are to his strategy.

The proof is in Trump’s words: “So these congresswomen, their comments are helping to fuel the rise of a dangerous, militant hard left. But that’s okay because we’re going to win this election like nobody has ever seen before,” he said Wednesday night.

Trump attacked each member of the Squad

After bashing Omar with remarks that were reportedly read off a teleprompter, Trump took aim at Tlaib for using the f-word during a MoveOn event in January in which she was recorded saying about him, “We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker!” Trump characterized her comments as evidence that Tlaib doesn’t love America. Omar and Tlaib are America’s first two Muslim congresswomen.

“That’s not nice, even for me,” Trump said, alluding to Tlaib’s comments. “She was describing the president of the United States and the president with the big, fat, vicious — the way she said it, vicious — f-word. That’s not somebody who loves our country.”

Trump then accused Ocasio-Cortez of conducting “outrageous attacks against the men and women of law enforcement ... she said essentially Nazis are running concentration camps” at the border. But Trump’s characterization of AOC’s comments was misleading — she did describe migrant detention centers as “concentration camps” but never compared border agents to Nazis.

Trump went on to accuse AOC of describing “contemporary America ... as garbage.”

“Garbage. We’re garbage. Remember ‘deplorables’? I think that’s worse,” Trump added. This too was misleading — AOC never compared Trump or his supporters with garbage, though she did say during an appearance at South by Southwest earlier this year that “this idea of like 10 percent better from garbage, is, shouldn’t be what we settle for.”

Trump even went as far as to mock AOC’s name:

AOC is a popular figure in conservative media, often mentioned far more on Fox News than the actual House speaker.

Trump also went after the fourth Squad member, Pressley, saying she “thinks that people with the same skin color need to think the same.” He suggested that she sympathizes with antifa, alluding to a recent incident where Pressley refused to answer a question from a right-wing reporter who demanded she denounce antifa in a hallway near the Capitol.

After attacking each congresswoman individually, Trump wrapped up that portion of his speech by taking shots at them collectively and reiterating his admonition that they should consider leaving the country:

So these congresswomen, their comments are helping to fuel the rise of a dangerous, militant hard left. But that’s okay because we’re going to win this election like nobody has ever seen before. And tonight, I have a suggestion for the hate-filled extremists who are constantly trying to tear our country down — they never have anything good to say — that’s why I say, “Hey, if they don’t like it, they can leave.” Let them leave. Let them leave! They’re always telling us how to run it, how to do this — you know what? If they don’t love it, tell them to leave it. I don’t know. And now watch, I’ll go back tonight — “Oh, sir, that was so controversial. Sir.” No, I’m just saying it’s their choice. They can come back when they want. But you know, they don’t love our country. I think in some cases they hate our country. And they’re so angry.

But Trump’s attacks on women on Wednesday night weren’t limited to Democratic congresswomen of color.

Elizabeth Warren was a major target too. Hillary Clinton, in an unusual twist, was not.

Trump attacked a number of the front-running contenders for the Democratic nomination for president, including Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, but his most vicious attacks were reserved for Elizabeth Warren, whom he repeatedly referred to with his now-familiar “Pocahontas” slur.

“Pocahontas is gaining a little bit because we probably used the ‘Pocahontas’ a little bit too early, but that’s okay, we will bring it out of retirement very soon,” Trump said, alluding to Warren’s rising standing in the polls.

Later, he added: “I was driving her crazy. So she went out and hired a guy to check the blood. I’m sure he had a lot of fun doing that. He checked her blood and found out that many, many, many, many, many, many years ago, there could’ve been somebody. And he could’ve been Indian. And then the Indians got together and they said, ‘We don’t want her! We don’t want her.’”

Trump was referring to Warren releasing her DNA test last year, which indeed drew some criticism; many are justifiably uncomfortable with tracing one’s race to DNA. Nevertheless, Native Americans are not a monolithic group, and while many did criticize Warren’s effort to claim Native American heritage, others support her.

In a departure from his typical speeches, Trump only mentioned Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi in passing. But he didn’t have good things to say about them. He mocked Clinton for falsely believing she would win North Carolina in 2016, and criticized Pelosi for objecting to his characterization of MS-13 members as “animals.”

Trump also mentioned German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an unflattering context, suggesting he needs to hector her to pay her country’s bills.

“There was a recent poll — Germany likes Obama better than Trump. A lot better. I said of course, because I’m making them pay their bills,” Trump said. “I’m saying you got to pay. I say, ‘Angela, Angela, you’ve got to pay, Angela!’ Obama would go in, make a speech, leave. I go in, make a speech, I say, ‘Let me speak to Angela. Angela you’ve got to pay your bills, you’ve way behind.’”

There’s a method behind the ugliness

It’s worth remembering that Trump went out of his way to insert himself into a feud between House Democratic leadership and the Squad. His Sunday tweets admonishing them to leave the country weren’t in response to anything in particular, other than his desire to make himself part of the story.

Trump clearly views racist attacks as a winning strategy. On Wednesday, Axios, citing sources close to Trump, reported that Trump views his attacks on Omar and company as a way to motivate white grievance voters to go to the polls next year.

“He hopes he can crank their turnout even higher, especially among older, white evangelicals. He knows most of those voters are unlikely to ditch him, no matter how offensive his comments,” wrote Axios’s Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen. “He watches Fox News and knows AOC, in particular, is catnip to old, white voters, especially men.”

But even if he’s counting on white men, he still pays lip service to women.

“You know, it’s interesting with women. So women want to have strong military protection. They want to have strong borders. They want to have strong law enforcement. They want to have great education. They want to have low taxes for their family, not high taxes,” Trump said during his speech on Wednesday. “They want to have all the thing that we talk about — why wouldn’t they want Trump more than anybody else? The other side is going to go the opposite way. And they did in the last election and we’re doing a lot better.”

What Trump didn’t mention is that women voters favored Democrats by an estimated 7 points and turned out at historic rates in 2018.

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