Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar posted to Instagram a picture with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from a trip they took together to Africa to send a pointed message to President Donald Trump after his recent "go back" tweet.
Omar is a member of "The Squad," an informal group of four progressive Democratic congresswomen who have clashed recently with Pelosi over the party's political strategy, such as the recent Senate immigration bill that passed the House with Dem support. The Squad voted against it.
Trump suggested earlier this month that The Squad—which also includes New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley—should return to the lands of their ancestors in a tweet widely condemned as racist.
All four women are nonwhite, American citizens, and three were born in the U.S. Omar arrived in America as a child refugee fleeing war in Somalia back in the early 1990s. After Trump's tweet, his supporters at a rally chanted "send her back" about Omar.
"They said 'send her back' but @SpeakerPelosi didn't just make arrangements to send me back, she went back with me," Omar posted on Instagram, suggesting the pair had buried the hatchet over recent disagreements. "So grateful for the honor to return to Mother Africa with the @TheBlackCaucus and commemorate The Year of Return!"
The women were in Ghana to mark The Year of the Return 2019, an invitation by Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo to the world's African Diaspora to visit the lands and people to which they are ancestrally connected. Pelosi addressed Ghana's Parliament on the trip.
The California congresswoman tweeted that she delivered a "message of respect and reaffirming the U.S commitment to security, freedom and justice for all" to Ghanaian lawmakers.
Pelosi also swiped at Trump by sending a message of support to her Democratic colleague Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who, along with his Baltimore district, has been the target of a recent barrage of invective by the president seen by his critics as a racist onslaught.
"To @RepCummings with love from Ghana, where we're solemnly observing 400 yrs since the first enslaved Africans arrived in America. Thank you Elijah for fearlessly speaking truth," Pelosi wrote on Twitter.
In mid-July, Trump tweeted that The Squad "originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world…now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run."
He continued: "Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can't leave fast enough. I'm sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!"
