This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Donald Trump on Tuesday waded further into the race row he sparked with a weekend attack on a senior black congressman and the city of Baltimore, as black leaders boycotted an event the president attended in Virginia.

The US president said those who stayed away were acting “against their own people”, while claiming, as he left the White House to fly to the event, that his denigration of Baltimore was “helping” his political standing.

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Trump went to Jamestown, Virginia, on Tuesday to commemorate 400 years of democracy in the US at an event to mark the first meeting of a representative legislative assembly in the western hemisphere. That took place on 30 July1619, when George Yeardley convened the assembly as governor of the new British colony.

Next month will mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves in America, when the first slave ship docked, also in Virginia. Trump remarked upon the “horrors of slavery” in a speech on Tuesday.

Yet just hours earlier he had returned to Twitter to continue his attack on leading Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings. Trump called Cummings and the civil rights advocate Al Sharpton, who are both African American, racists. He also attacked other leaders of color in personal terms.

The latest volley continued an attack he began against Cummings on Sunday when he called the legislator a “brutal bully” and said his congressional district was both “a disgusting, rat- and rodent-infested mess” and “the worst-run and most dangerous [district] anywhere in the United States”.

The remarks followed Trump’s exhortations to four congresswomen of color earlier in July that they should “go back to where they came from”, even though they are US citizens.

On Tuesday, senior Democratic politicians, including Virginia’s house Democratic leader and Democratic caucus chair, and every member of the Virginia legislative black caucus stayed away during Trump’s speech in Jamestown.

Virginia’s Democratic governor Ralph Northam, who was almost forced out of office over his own controversy involving blackface, said: “We know our diversity is our strength, and we welcome immigrants, refugees and all who like those who stood on spot 400 years ago, come to Virginia in search of a better life.

“Our doors are open and our lights are on. No matter who you are, no matter who you love and no matter where you came from, you are welcome in Virginia.”

Trump was undeterred. The legislators who boycotted his visit were acting “against their own people”, Trump said.

The black caucus disagreed, and said their absence was because “the participation of the president is antithetical to the principles for which the caucus stands”.

They said: “The commemoration of the birth of this nation and its democracy will be tarnished unduly with the participation of the president. Who continues to make degrading comments toward minority leaders, promulgate policies that harm marginalized communities, and use racist and xenophobic rhetoric.”

The Pulitzer prize-winning historian Jon Meacham, who earlier in July compared Trump to Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States whose racism played a part in his impeachment, was among those to speak at the event, before Trump.

Meacham said: “Extremism, racism, nativism, xenophobia and isolationism, driven by fear of the unknown, tend to spike in periods of stress. A period like our own. As we gather here faith in representative institutions is ebbing. Reflexive partisanship is the order of the day.”

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Before departing for the event, Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House and claimed he is “the least racist person that there is anywhere in the world”.

He said: “The African American people have been calling the White House. They have never been so happy as [sic] what a president has done.” An hour later, a Quinnipiac poll revealed that 80% of black people think Trump is racist.

Pundits have disagreed on whether Trump is speaking from the gut or whether his comments represent a clear strategy to consolidate his base and win over enough white swing voters to achieve re-election in 2020.

On Tuesday, a Virginia state legislator heckled Trump in Jamestown, shouting: “You can’t send us back.”