Eric Trump expressed support for his father’s message to several “progressive” members of the Democratic party on July 17 amid criticism that the president’s Twitter posts were “racist.”
“I love the tweet, ‘If you don’t love our country, get out. Leave,’” Trump said during an appearance on Fox & Friends. “You know, if you complain about our country, you know, go to somewhere—go experience somewhere else in the world. I have seen a lot of the world, right? We have it so great in America. America is doing so well.”
“I’m not saying America doesn’t have certain problems. Go see the conditions around the world. And you will be so fortunate you live here. We are blessed to live in this country. And if you’re not happy about it. I like his message. Leave,” he added.
President Donald Trump ignited a public feud with several “progressive” members of the Democratic party—Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashia Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), known as the “squad”—after he unloaded several criticisms and accusations against them in a series of Twitter posts between July 14 and 16.
His most notable post was one where he called on “‘progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen” to “go back” to their countries to help fix the “totally broken and crime-infested places” before returning to the United States to “show us how it is done.” Apart from Omar, who was born in Somalia, the other three lawmakers were born in the United States.
Many of Trump’s opponents denounced the comments, calling them racist. The four congresswomen also held a press conference on July 15 to publicly fight back against the president.
The Democrat-controlled House even passed a resolution to condemn the president’s remarks on July 16 largely on party lines.
The president’s son said Democrats resort to “name-calling” because “they have no message.”
“This is what’s happening to the party and it’s totally feeding into our hand. I hope they keep on doing it because they’re not getting anything done … if anybody thinks differently than them, if anybody looks different than them, if anybody acts different, if anybody has different beliefs or thoughts, they have no message, so what are they going to do? You’re a racist, you’re a this, you’re a that,” Trump said.
He also took the opportunity to praise his father for standing up for the United States in all fronts from foreign policy, immigration, to the economy.
“The guy is the greatest fighter in the world. And he is willing to fight, and I’ve said this time and time again, but America didn’t have a fighter for administrations—by the way, both on the Republican and Democratic side—we haven’t had somebody in there fighting,” Trump said. “No one’s been fighting for American pride. And standing up for the national anthem, and standing up for our flag.”
“My father is in there, and he’s fighting every single day,” he added.
A recent opinion poll has found that Republican support for President Donald Trump had a slight increase after he went on his Twitter tirade calling out the far-left congresswomen.
The Reuters-Ipsos public opinion poll, conducted on July 15 and 16, showed that Trump’s net approval among members of the Republican Party rose by 5 percentage points to 72 percent, compared with a similar poll that ran last week.
The poll also found that the president lost support with Democrats and independents since the tweetstorm on July 14.
About 3 out of 10 independents said they approved of Trump, down from 4 out of 10 a week ago. His net approval—the percentage who approve minus the percentage who disapprove—fell by 2 points among Democrats in the poll.
Overall, Trump’s approval remained consistent where 41 percent of Americans approve of his job performance, while 55 percent disapprove.
Reuters contributed to this report.
