President Donald Trump has resumed his feud with four Democratic congresswomen of color, arguing that they are incapable of loving the United States.

"I don't believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our country," Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday. "They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said. They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!"

Fellow Democrats defended the four and condemned Trump. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the House Oversight Committee and an African American, said, "These are folks and women who love their country and they work very hard and they want to move us towards that more perfect union that our founding fathers talked about." Cummings told ABC, "When you disagree with the president, suddenly you're a 'bad person.' Our allegiance is not to the president. Our allegiance is to the Constitution of the United States of America and to the American people."

Cummings added that he believes President Trump is a racist. "No doubt about it," he said.

A week ago, Trump wrote on Twitter that the four representatives should "go back" to their countries of origin if they are unhappy with the United States. His targets were Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Omar was born in Somalia and came to the United States with her family as a refugee. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen as a teenager. The other three were born in the United States. All have been sharply critical of Trump and his policies.

The House of Representatives, controlled by Democrats, passed a resolution last week condemning Trump's remarks as racist. Four Republican legislators and independent Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan joined every Democrat in supporting the resolution.

Trump Trump attended a rally in North Carolina last Wednesday night at which his supporters chanted "send her back" after the president lashed out at Omar. Trump allowed the chanting to proceed and stood silently for a few seconds, then resumed his speech after the chanting died down.

On Thursday, Trump said he was not happy with the "send her back" chant but on Friday he defended the North Carolina crowd as "incredible patriots." On Saturday, Trump retweeted commentary from an ultraconservative British analyst who made extremely negative comments about Muslims.

Stephen Miller, a senior White House adviser to Trump, told Fox News Sunday that criticism of Trump for his comments about the four congresswomen is part of a campaign by Democrats to "try to silence and punish and suppress" opposing views. "I fundamentally disagree with the view that if you criticize somebody and they happen to be a different color of skin, that happens to be a racial criticism," Miller said. "....The core issue is that all the people in that [North Carolina] audience and millions of patriotic Americans all across this country are tired of being beat up, condescended to, looked down upon, talked down to by members of Congress on the left in Washington, D.C. and their allies in many corners of the media."

