President Donald Trump is doubling down on attacks he made yesterday against democratic congresswomen.

In a series of racist tweets, the president wrote “progressive’ democratic congresswomen” should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

And today Trump said he stands by his tweets.

“It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me.”

Though he didn’t mention the Democrats by name, the apparent targets are congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, who are all American born citizens, and Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia and became a U.S. citizen in 2000.

Cortez thinks “it’s unfortunate that he feels the way he feels about people of color in this country”

Hussein Hamdani is a Hamilton lawyer and is active in the city’s Muslim community and was affected personally by the president’s remarks because his family is from Yemen. He says we aren’t immune to this kind of behavior and vile language here in Canada.

Within the last year, there has been a rise in racist remarks yelled at people.

“There has been a rise in hate groups in Hamilton. They often say the same thing. Go back. You’re not here. You’re not from us. You’re somewhere foreign.”

And added that this kind of language is encouraging to far-right supporters and white supremacists.

“It also emboldens those of us who stand for anti-racism, who stand for anti-hate, to say not enough is being done. We have a lot to go when the President of the United States is being such a bigot and there’s people in Canada that say dog whistle politics”.

The Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion issued a statement that says many residents here in Hamilton experience this language in the workplace, school, grocery store, and other public and private spaces.

By using this language the president is empowering others to continue attacking racialized and marginalized people.