It didnt receive a rebuke from the House , but President Donald Trump did something else this week, apart from his racist tweets against a quartet of Democratic congresswomen , that many saw as ugly and contrary to American values.

Addressing the furor at a press conference on Monday, Trump hurled another line of attack against the four lawmakers, accusing them of hating the United States and suggesting they leave the country if theyre not happy here.

All Im saying is, if theyre not happy here, they can leave. There will be many people who will be happy, Trump told reporters at the White House.

If you hate our Country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave! he added in a tweet on Tuesday.

Suggesting a person ought to leave the country if they disagree with how it is being governed betrays a fundamental ignorance of the rights to free speech and expression, something the nations founders understood as vital to democracy.

In fact, before he launched his bid for the White House, Trump himself often railed against very stupid government leaders. As a candidate, he sharply criticized U.S. policy, and in his inaugural address, he used stark imagery to describe a broken nation riddled with crime and poverty.

But wrapping oneself in the flag or, in Trumps case, hugging it to slam opponents as somehow un-American isnt a new tactic. During the George W. Bush administration, for example, Republicans routinely declared Democrats unpatriotic if they opposed the costly Iraq War. Bush administration officials also suggested that people who disagreed with the administrations anti-terrorism policies were on the side of the terrorists.

In fact, the sentiments Trump expressed this week have been used again and again throughout U.S. history .

It reminds me of during the Vietnam War, where I was one of the protesters, and there was this whole Love it or Leave It thing, and those were not good times, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) told HuffPost on Tuesday.

Trumps attacks didnt initially name the Democratic congresswomen he was targeting, but they were almost certainly Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) all outspoken freshmen who have recently butted heads with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The progressive quartet responded to the presidents attack during a press conference at the Capitol on Monday.

When people say, If you say a negative thing about this country, you hate this country, Omar said, to me, it sort of speaks to the hypocrisy.

Weak minds and leaders challenge loyalty to our country in order to avoid debating the policy, Ocasio-Cortez said. This president doesnt know how to defend his policies, so what he does is attack us personally.