Trump calling former aide Omarosa a ‘dog’ triggers outrage

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called Omarosa Manigault Newman a “dog” on Twitter, prompting outrage by critics who said the comment was a racially charged attack on the former aide, who is a black woman.

“When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out,” the president tweeted. “Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!”

The reference is to White House chief of staff (and retired general) John Kelly, who fired Manigault Newman last year.

The attack stirred an immediate backlash.

“How dare he? How dare he call anyone a dog,” Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democratic lawmaker and a black woman, said on CNN. “We already have racism raining down all over America.”

Heather Hurlburt, of the New America think tank, criticized the president.

“I know we’re all supposed to be post-shock now, but the President of the United States calling anybody, and specifically a black woman, a dog cannot be allowed to pass in silence,” she said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office declined to comment.

Trump has been accused in other instances of using racially charged insults. He has repeatedly referred to Rep. Maxine Waters, a black woman, as “low IQ.” In announcing his presidential bid in 2015, he called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “criminals.”

It’s far from the first time the president has called someone a “dog,” and the word isn’t limited to women or people of color. In 2012, he commented on actress Kristen Stewart cheating on Robert Pattinson “like a dog.” In 2013, rapper Mac Miller was called an “ungrateful dog.” In 2015, Trump said conservative political commentator Glenn Beck had been “fired like a dog” by Fox News.

And later in 2015, just a couple months out from announcing his presidential campaign, he called media mogul Arianna Huffington a “dog who wrongfully comments on me.”

Trump has drawn criticism in particular for the insults he’s lobbed at women and people of color.

“You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals,” then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly told Trump at the first GOP candidate debate in 2015.

“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” he retorted.

Former U.S. Rep. Bakari Sellers, former CIA chief John Brennan, Geraldo Rivera, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene and NFL great Shannon Sharpe are among many who weighed in on Twitter blasting Trump for the comment.

Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. weighed in on Facebook.