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Donald Trump hit a new low with racist tweets and everyone noticed

Twitter has yet to tag the tweets under its new policy of marking, but not removing, content that violates Twitter terms of service but remains in the public interest.

Adam Rosenberg

on July 14, 2019

Donald Trump hit a new low with racist tweets and everyone noticed

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Jenny Kane/AP/Shutterstock (10322966a) The U.S. President Donald Trump's Twitter feed is shown on a computer screen, in New York. President Donald Trump's next tweet might come with a warning label. Starting Thursday tweets that Twitter deems in the public interest, but which violate the service's rules, will be obscured by a warning explaining the violation. Users will have to tap through the warning to see the underlying message Trump Twitter Warning Labels, New York, USA - 27 Jun 2019 Credit: Jenny Kane/AP/Shutterstock

It's Sunday, July 14, and Donald Trump is saying racist stuff on Twitter.

While that's been true of many other days during Trump's presidency, the Sunday tweets were particularly vicious (and incorrect in their fundamental assertion). They're so bad, in fact, that the people of Twitter quickly took the mean-spirited and bombastic U.S. president to task for his words.

It all stems from ongoing disagreement within the Democratic party between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and four Congresswomen -- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley -- known as "the Squad." The four women are young and progressive people of color whose efforts have pulled the party to the left while Pelosi has toed more of a moderate, center-left line.

That's all you need to know for the purpose of Trump's tweets. His campaign team has recognized the value of stoking divisions in the opposing party, and Pelosi -- who works with Trump directly -- is the obvious one for him to defend, given their working relationship and his own history.

That's what led him to say... this.

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Let's be clear: the progressives Trump appears to be targeting are all American citizens. Omar is the only one born outside the United States, and she's been here since she was 10, living in Minnesota for most of that time. Pressley is from Ohio, Tlaib is from Michigan, and Ocasio-Cortez is from New York.

All four would probably argue that they ran for office in the first place so they could work to improve the lives of people where each of them are from. Political office is a public service, after all.

Trump's reputation for creating a ruckus with his tweets is hardly news, but this particular tirade is more deeply offensive than his usual fare. While Twitter, the company, hasn't yet acted to flag his tweets as a ToS violation that's still of public interest -- in accordance with a recent policy change -- that didn't stop the people of Twitter (including those who were ostensibly targeted) from shouting him down.

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This is just a small sampling of the nearly blanket condemnation Trump is facing on Sunday morning from everyone other than members of his own Republican party. This particular episode may at least come to haunt him in the long run, if it can teach feuding Democrats the importance of working out their differences in private while keeping a united front against Trump publicly.

We'll update this story if/when we hear back from Twitter on the subject of flagging Trump's offending tweets.

Topics X/Twitter Donald Trump Politics Racial Justice

Adam Rosenberg

Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.