President Trump is meeting with members of his Cabinet Tuesday morning, as he continues to face backlash over his racist tweets — although that backlash isn’t coming from his administration. So far, members of his administration have either defended the president or distanced themselves from his tweet that progressive women of color should “go back” to their countries.
The president sparked a firestorm over the weekend with a series of tweets seemingly targeting freshmen Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar that were immediately and widely condemned as racist. He wrote that the representatives — three of whom were born in the U.S., and all American citizens — should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
Mr. Trump vigorously defended his comments on the White House South Lawn Monday, shrugging off concerns that white nationalists are harnessing his remarks.
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“It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me. And all I’m saying, they want to leave, they can leave,” Mr. Trump said Monday.
He continued to defend his Twitter rant on the social media platform Tuesday morning.
“Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body! The so-called vote to be taken is a Democrat con game. Republicans should not show ‘weakness’ and fall into their trap,” the president tweeted.
Administration officials have either declined to comment on the president’s tweets or defended him. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the president’s comments weren’t racist. Top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow declined to comment Monday, saying the president had tweeted what he’d tweeted.
During his Cabinet meeting Tuesday, the president said the immigration legislation his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has been working on with Congress is nearly ready, and if it doesn’t pass, it will become a campaign issue.
“Our country really has a tremendous immigration gap,” the president said, describing the current immigration system as a “maze of complexity.”
On another topic, the president claimed he doesn’t want regime change in Iran — he just wants Iran out of Yemen.
“We’re not looking for regime change,” Mr. Trump said. “We want them out of Yemen.”
