Twitter Analysis Shows How Trump Tweets Differently About Nonwhite Lawmakers

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/10/768646968/as-summer-heated-up-trumps-tweets-about-non-white-democrats-intensified

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He kicked off his tweetstorm in mid-July with a Twitter thread that embraced racist tropes, urging members of the "squad" — all women of color — to "go back" to the "totally broken and crime infested places from which they came."

Trump would go on to tweet about the "squad" — Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — nearly 20 times collectively in about three months.

That's more negative tweets than Trump has aimed at presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders in the nearly three years he has been president.

Among other things, he has called the squad "a very racist group of troublemakers" and claimed they hate the United States.

That language speaks to some white Trump supporters who may be worried about the country's changing demographics, says Niambi Carter, a political science professor at Howard University.

"When he says 'Make America Great Again' and points to these women as the sort of embodiment of everything that America isn't: It's not black. It's not a woman. It's not Muslim. It's not Latina ... these women become perfect vehicles for all of that xenophobia and all of that anxiety that these white voters feel," Carter said.

Omar, in particular, has been a top target for Trump on Twitter and off. Including tweets about the "squad" and tweets that single her out, Trump has tweeted about her 29 times. By comparison, he tweeted about Ocasio-Cortez 22 times.


"The president chooses his targets pretty carefully"

The White House did not respond to interview requests for this story, but Trump supporters generally say that the president is a counterpuncher who responds to people who attack him, no matter who they are.

The review of Trump's tweets shows that he does go after critics, but not everyone gets the same treatment or attention.

The only lawmakers with more negative tweets than the squad and Cummings are top Democrats: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.