°®Âþµº

US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar hit back at Donald Trump Thursday in an Instagram post of herself in Ghana with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, captioned: "They said 'send her back' but Speaker Pelosi didn’t just make arrangement to send me back, she went back with me."

Two weeks earlier, President Trump told "'Progressive Democrat Congresswomen", a reference to four liberal lawmakers known as the Squad of which Omar is a part, to "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came". The controversial comment prompted senior members of the party and much of the world to brand him a "racist".

Omar, a Somali refugee who emigrated to the US at the age of eight, "went back" - as she put it - with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on a congressional trip to to Ghana in observance of the American slave trade's 400th anniversary. 

"So grateful for the honor to return to Mother Africa with the and commemorate The Year of Return!" she wrote on Instagram.

Trump targeted the four Congresswomen despite them all being US citizens. Three of the four women were born in the United States. At a rally in North Carolina, Trump supporters chanted "send her back" after the President mentioned Ilhan Omar.

Comment: What Trump really means when he tells 'The Squad' to go home

Pelosi, who joined Omar on her trip to Ghana, has warned her party to avoid the "menace" of liberal policies pushed by progressives. But she came out in full force against Trump’s "attack", tweeting: "I reject @realDonaldTrump's xenophobic comments meant to divide our nation."

Pelosi added that Trump's comments reaffirmed "his plan to 'Make America Great Again' has always been about making America white again."

The House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning Trump’s attack as racist.

Speaking to the Ghanaian parliament on Wednesday, Pelosi said the delegation’s visit to a fort where slaves had been held was a "transformative and humbling" experience.

Ghana's president Nana Aufo-Addo marked 2019 as the "Year of Return" - an invitation to the "Global African family" to mark the 400th anniversary of the slave trade by making the "birthright journey home".

The powerful, progressive first-term lawmakers targeted b Trump are Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the first two female Muslim members of Congress, along with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley.

Trump has taken particular issue with Omar, who found herself in hot water this year when she suggested money is why so many US politicians support Israel.