Rep. Ilhan Omar receives a standing ovation at a Town Hall meeting, Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 18, 2019

Concerned about Donald Trump’s racism in his attacks on four Democratic Congresswomen, advisors and Republican legislators have told him to concentrate on saying the women are America-haters.

Interviewing 26 well-placed sources, The Washington Post documents Trump’s assault that began on Twitter on July 14, when he told the legislators — Reps. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — to “go back to their countries”.

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Republicans in Congress and Trump’s staff worried that the racist taunt would harm rather than help the 2020 election effort. By noon on Monday, they had a plan both to limit damage and to renew the attacks on the Congresswomen: “The idea was to argue that the four congresswomen hated America and were welcome to leave for that reason.”

Omar, who with Tlaib are the first two Muslim Congresswomen in US history, would be assailed as anti-Semitic, taking years-old comments out of context. Pressley would be challenged over a comment that Democrats don’t need “any more black faces that don’t want to be a black voice”.

Even before Trump received the memo, his friend Sen. Lindsey Graham was on Trump’s favorite show Fox and pushing the narrative that “The Squad”, as the Congresswomen label themselves, were extremist, anti-Semitic, Al Qa’eda sympathizers, and “Communists” who “hate America”.

Watching the morning program, Trump immediately put out a series of tweets quoting Graham and amplifed the message later on Monday.

“Send Her Back!”

By Wednesday, the White House and GOP leadership thought their “hate-America” line had succeeded in seizing the political initiative from the Democrats.

Josh Holmes, a close adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, exulted, “You can take issue with his tactics. But the reality is that there is no political figure in memory who consistently saddles his opponents with unwinnable arguments quite like President Trump.”

But that night, at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, Trump’s attacks on each of the four Congresswomen — in particular, a lie-filled diatribe about Omar — led the crowd to chant, “Send Her Back!”. Trump basked for 13 seconds in the chant.

Republican legislators were so concerned at the recurrence of racism that they asked Vice President Mike Pence to damp down the line. Ivanka Trump also spoke with her father.

So on Thursday, at a ceremony for Special Olympians, Trump made a grudging retreat. He lied to reporters that he had tried to cut off the crowd: “I disagree with it, by the way….I felt a little bit badly about it.”

Back on the Attack: “They Detest America”

By Friday, Trump was walking back the non-apology and focusing on the “hate America” talking points, lashing out at “Foul Mouthed Omar”:

By Saturday, he — or a member of his staff — was exalting the far-right UK commentator Katie Hopkins, who has called for the “final solution” for Muslims.

Not a single leading Republican voice objected.

Instead, Trump’s advisors and senior GOP legislators went on the Sunday talk shows to extend the attack. Stephen Miller, the hardline anti-immigrant advisor, assailed Ocasio-Cortez over her criticism of the detention of migrants in overcrowded, inhumane conditions — “these are the comments we need to be focusing on” — and said the “Left” wants to “turn America into Venezuela”. Vice President Mike Pence insisted that “millions of Americans share the president’s frustration” with the “reckless rhetoric” of the Congresswomen.

Repeatedly and effectively challenged by Fox News’s Chris Wallace over his evasion of Trump’s statements, Miller crudely responded: “These four women detest America….They want to tear down the structure of this country….[They] have a deep-seated hatred of the country as it exists.”

Meanwhile, Rashida Tlaib was outlining what she and Congressional colleagues have been doing — from tax credits for families to restrictions on toxic chemical to lower insurance rates to a national minimum wage — in a series of tweets.