'Send her back!' chant shows Trump's ugly plan to get reelected

In a moment of unrestrained demagoguery, President Donald Trump presided Wednesday over a crowd chanting "Send her back! Send her back!" about an American Muslim congresswoman who he targeted with racist attacks.

The scenes at a North Carolina rally provided an ugly overture to a 2020 election campaign already soaked in hate. They exemplified the tribal politics and white nationalism that Trump is making clear he plans to ride to reelection, no matter their impact on America's fragile societal harmony.

The chants of "Send her back!" referred to Somalia-born, American citizen Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, one of four minority lawmakers attacked by Trump over the weekend. The invective from the crowd replaced the "Lock her up!" and "Build the wall!" chants of Trump's first campaign with a jarring racial refrain that the commander-in-chief, speaking from behind a podium bearing the symbolic presidential seal, made no effort to stop.

Reinforcing days of attacks on the four progressive Democratic women, known as "The Squad" on Capitol Hill, Trump questioned their patriotism and highlighted some of their controversial comments on issues including Israel, law enforcement and the September 11th terrorist attacks, in some cases distorting their records.

"They don't love our country. They are so angry," Trump said, lambasting the group as "hate filled extremists."

"If they don't like it let them leave, let them leave," Trump said.

Other presidents, like Richard Nixon for instance, have used veiled racial messaging in elections. But there is no modern equivalent of a US president so openly encouraging racial and tribal undercurrents on the campaign trail in order to consolidate his own power.