US President Donald Trump has been accused of racism after posting tweets attacking Democratic congresswomen.
He claimed the women “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe”, before suggesting they “go back”.
The tweet was directed at a group of four congresswomen of colour; three were born and raised in the US while the fourth moved to the US as a child.
Republican Party representatives kept quiet amid a wave of criticism.
The women – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar, who came to the US as a refugee aged 12 – have all called the president racist, and have been backed by members of the Democratic Party.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx in New York, approximately 12 miles away from the Queens hospital where Mr Trump himself was born.
In a three-tweet thread, Mr Trump accused the congresswomen of “viciously” criticising him and the US.
The president did not explicitly name the women he was talking about, but the context – and references to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – made a clear link. He said Ms Pelosi would happily organise for them to leave the country.
A week ago, Ms Pelosi clashed with the four women – sometimes nicknamed “the squad” – but she has since come to their defence following his tweets.
The president wrote: “So interesting to see ‘progressive’ Democrat congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful nation on earth, how our government is to be run.