He didn’t wince, he didn’t cringe, he didn’t say “stop.” He soaked it in.
When the crowd at President Donald Trump’s Wednesday campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina, began chanting “send her back” about one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, he paused for 13 seconds and let the words hang in the air.
It should have been a crisis for him and his campaign, but it wasn’t. The moment channeled the spirit of another event that really was regarded as major upheaval in his presidency: the 2017 white supremacist march in Charlottesville, North Carolina. When Trump first gave tepid and inconsistent remarks about the event and later defended the “very fine people” who he believed were among the bigoted marchers, the White House recognized the president’s peril and a top adviser reportedly drafted a resignation letter in anguish.
The Charlottesville marchers cheered “You will not replace us” and “Jews will not replace us,” endorsing pernicious conspiracy theories about the supposed dangers of migrants and the people who welcome them. Those same theories inspired the slaughters in a Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque and at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.
And on Wednesday, Trump inspired the related sentiment in his followers when he attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who came to the United States as a child refugee from Somalia.
“Send her back! Send her back!” they cheered.
As a member of Congress, Omar has real, if limited, power. They don’t want her to replace them.
She criticized and disagreed with the president, so she must be forcibly removed from the country, the crowd decided. She has scary, different ideas — even if she promotes them in exactly the way advocates of “assimilation” would demand. She was educated, adapted to American culture, entered herself into the political discourse, convinced voters to support her, and won a seat in Congress. Some say she’s been too critical of Israel, and argued her language is insufficiently sensitive about anti-Semitic tropes. But she criticizes Saudia Arabia, and she criticizes Hamas, too. She promotes nonviolent solutions to problems.
But Trump targeted her, singled her out as foreign and unwanted, so she became the enemy. And in his eyes, despite her American citizenship, despite her duly won election, she doesn’t belong in Congress and she doesn’t belong here.
“Go back,” he said.
“You will not replace us,” the Charlottesville Nazis cheered.
It seemed “send her back” may have been a step too far, for a little bit. Trump lied Thursday, saying he tried to stop the chant. He said he was “not happy” about the crowd’s words.
But by Friday, he changed his mind again. What he is really “unhappy with” is Omar, he said. “Those are incredible patriots,” he said of the crowd.
“Very fine people,” he might have said.