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Trump melts down over Washington Post story about his racist tweets

The president's Sunday morning was spent whining about a negative story from 2:43 p.m. on Saturday.

President Donald Trump disavowed and then reavowed chants by his supporters who were quoting his racist tweets.
President Donald Trump disavowed and then reavowed chants by his supporters who were quoting his racist tweets. (Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump spent Sunday morning stewing over a nearly day old Washington Post story on aides’ concerns regarding his racist tweets about four congresswomen of color.

Echoing his standard smear of news stories that are unfavorable to him, Trump attacked the story as “Fake News” with “phony sources who do not exist,” despite its reliance on on-the-record quotes from key supporters.

Last week, Trump attacked attacked Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), tweeting the common racist trope that they should “go back” to their home countries. Omar is a naturalized American who came to the United States as a child from Somalia; The other three were born in the United States. At a North Carolina rally a few days later, the president smiled as his supporters chanted back his racist advice — “send her back,” referring to Omar.

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According to the Post story, “President Trump’s own top aides didn’t think he fully understood what he had done last Sunday, when he fired off a trio of racist tweets before a trip to his golf course.”  The piece features a series of on-the-record quotes from his staunch defender and confidant, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who said that Trump “realized that part of it was not playing well,” and that, as usual, the president doubled down and then adjusted. Trump initially disavowed his supporters remarks, suggesting on Thursday that they were the ones demonstrating inappropriate racism and falsely claiming that he had spoken quickly to try to stop them, before praising them and returning to the racist attacks.

On Sunday morning, Trump unloaded on the Post for its unflattering piece. “The only thing people were talking about is the record setting crowd and the tremendous enthusiasm,” he lied. Then, in a follow-up tweet, he repeated another frequent Trump trope: trying to present himself as a victim. “Presidential Harrassment!” he exclaimed.

Minutes later, Trump was back to his racist smears of the four elected women.

Trump called them “weak & insecure people” and suggested that they are the ones who owe America an apology.