President Donald Trump managed in a single tweet storm to be racist, xenophobic, misogynistic and ignorant by suggesting that four Democratic congresswomen “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

The president is unhappy with the criticism his administration has received over the horrid detention centers housing migrant men, women and children.

So he decided to take out his frustration on congressional critics by tweeting:

He’s speaking in the thread of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was born in the Bronx in New York. And Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was born in and represents Detroit. And Rep. Ayanna Pressley who was born in Cincinnati and represents Boston. And Rep. Ilhan Omar. She was born in Somalia. Her family fled when she was a child. She represents Minneapolis.

Listen to women of color:Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is right, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a women of color problem

“I believe, as an immigrant, I probably love this country more than anyone that is naturally born,” Omar has said.

If you know immigrants, or the children of immigrants, or the grandchildren of immigrants, you probably agree with her.

I grew up in a family of such people.

My whole neighborhood, our whole town, was made up of such people. Men and women with ancestral roots in Europe and Africa and the Middle East and Asia.

Who doesn't come from immigrants?

And it’s not just my old neighborhood.

It’s ALL of us. Including the president.

All of Donald Trump’s grandparents, as well as his mother, were born in Europe. His wife is from Slovenia.

Constitutional failure in chief:Donald Trump and Congress are showing us what constitutional failure looks like

In the current Congress, 13% of voting members are immigrants or children of immigrants, with family links to 37 countries, according to the Pew Research Center.

In fact, if all members of Congress were made to “go back” to the countries from which their families originated, as Trump suggested for the Democratic congresswomen, there would be four members left.

That’s the number of Native Americans currently serving.

Given who we have in the White House, we’d probably all be better off.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com

What others are saying

Charles M. Blow, The New York Times: "The central framing of this kind of thinking is that this is a white country, founded and built by white men, and destined to be maintained as a white country. For anyone to be accepted as truly American they must assimilate and acquiesce to that narrative, to bow to that heritage and bend to those customs. It sees a country from which black and brown people come as deficient — 'a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world' — because, at its base, it sees black and brown people as deficient."

Mike Allen, Axios: "Trump is all-in on us-versus-them politics and does not care if he occasionally crosses the line into racism. Trump allies expect this to get worse, not better."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Twitter: "It’s important to note that the President’s words yday, telling four American Congresswomen of color 'go back to your own country,' is hallmark language of white supremacists. Trump feels comfortable leading the GOP into outright racism, and that should concern all Americans."

Charles Sykes, The Bulwark: "There was a time (as recently as 2016) when such vulgar racism would have drawn a rebuke from some Republicans – Paul Ryan, Nikki Haley, Jeff Flake, even Lindsey Graham. But Trump no longer needs to worry: his party is numbed, supine, and comfortable with its silence. Today, other than Justin Amash, not a single Republican elected official denounced their president’s racism. Instead, we will get shuffling evasions, rationalizations, the usual gaslighting … and, of course, full-throated support from his increasingly nativist toadies."

Newt Gingrich, Fox and Friends: “I think the president believes the more he can get the country to look at the so-called squad, the more he can get them to realize how radical they are, and how fundamentally anti-American their views are, in the long run, the better off he is. I think he would like to see them as the front page of the Democratic Party. And I think he thinks anything he does to elevate them is to his net advantage."

What our readers are saying

These four women hate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., almost as much as they hate President Donald Trump. When Trump says something, they fight within their party.

— Phillip Coyle

We have sickeningly gotten stuck with a person in the White House. Pursuing his need to insult these women, he casts other countries and their people as something to be ashamed of. There is little wonder why Trump has disgusted Americans and those around the world, too.

— Sam Osborne

I can't believe anyone, much less the president, would make such nasty, mean-spirited comments in America, the world's melting pot.

— Fred Simpson

Everyone knows that Trump's comments weren't racist. This accusation of racism is the left's way of shutting down critical conversations of their policies. Sometimes criticism is just criticism.

— Shep Fargotstein