Trump tweets 'MAGA' in response to story that is critical of him "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" the president tweeted at 6:31 a.m.

 -- President Trump replied to a tweet by a Washington Post reporter who penned a column criticizing the comments the president has made about prominent African Americans who have leveled criticisms against him early Thursday morning.

"MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" the president tweeted at 6:31 a.m in reply to Washington Post reporter Greg Sargent.

It is unclear whether the president intended to directly reply to Sargent with his tweet.

The White House has not responded to ABC News' request for clarification on whether the president meant to send the tweet.

In his opinion column published by the Post, Sargent offers a searing critique of what he identifies as Trump's pattern of criticizing prominent African Americans who have publicly taken issue with him as a way to rally to his largely white base.

"Let’s be clear about this: President Trump regularly goes out of his way to attack prominent African Americans not just to 'stoke the culture wars,' as this euphemism often has it —- but, more precisely, to stoke the sense among many of his supporters that the system is unfairly rigged on behalf of minorities, and that he’s here to put things right," Sargent wrote.

The president has taken to Twitter in recent days to slam Lavar Ball, the father of one of the UCLA basketball players who was released from China following allegations of shoplifting. Trump criticized Ball for refusing to thank him personally for appealing to President Xi during his trip earlier this month, calling him an "ungrateful fool."

In other recent cases of what some say are racially-tinged tweets, the president has been consistently vocal about his opposition to NFL players who have chosen not to stand for the national anthem before games this season as a means to protest racial injustice. Trump has also accused Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., of "secretly" listening in on his phone call with the widow of slain service member La David Johnson.

Wilson, who said she is a longtime family acquaintance of the Johnson family, was present for the president's call at the invitation of Johnson's widow.