Trump baselessly accuses Ilhan Omar of 'ungrateful US hate statements' just days after she received death threats

Ms Omar has been attacked for her statements, which were taken out of context

(AFP/Getty Images)

Donald Trump has launched a furious attack on Ilhan Omar, baselessly accusing the US congresswoman of making "ungrateful US hate statements".

In a tweet, the president went after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for "getting nothing done", and suggested that Ms Omar has control over the Democratic caucus.

"Before Nancy, who has lost all control of Congress and is getting nothing done, decides to defend her leader, Rep. Omar, she should look at the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. HATE statements Omar has made. She is out of control, except for her control of Nancy!" he wrote.

The tweet is the latest escalation in tensions between Mr Trump and Ms Omar, after the president tweeted a video attacking her and tying her to the 9/11 terror attacks on the US.

Ms Omar has since received death threats, with some of those explicitly referencing the president, according to Ms Omar's office.

The president's tweet came in reference to comments from Ms Omar in March with the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on the civil rights losses Muslims endured following the 9/11 attacks.

“CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognised that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties," Ms Omar said during that speech. "So you can't just say that today someone is looking at me strange, that I am going to try to make myself look pleasant. You have to say this person is looking at me strange, I am not comfortable with it, I am going to go talk to them and ask them why. Because that is a right you have."

The comments were seized upon by critics, including the New York Post, which ran a shocking front page in Mr Trump's home town the day he tweeted, showing her comments alongside images of the towers burning.

Mr Trump's video — tweeted hours later — showed Ms Omar speaking at CAIR, with disturbing footage of the World Trade Centre burning after the attacks 18 years ago spliced in alongside her remarks.

Ms Omar's speech was not made in a vacuum, however, and came just weeks after a major attack on two mosques in New Zealand shocked the world. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, too, there was an uptick in anti-Muslim sentiment and attacks — which is said to be on the rise again following Mr Trump's election.