Former Republican President Donald Trump officially endorsed GOP Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado within 24 hours of the House of Representatives rebuking her with an anti-Islamophobia bill.
Boebert isn't due for re-election until November 2022.
In his statement, he praised Boebert for being "a fearless leader, a defender of the America First Agenda and a fighter against the Loser RINOs and Radical Democrats."
Trump announced his endorsement on Twitter via his spokesperson, Liz Harrington.
Boebert later issued a response saying she will "ALWAYS stand with the America First agenda & President Trump!" and thanked him profusely.
Trump's endorsement came scarcely 24 hours after the House narrowly passed the Combating International Islamophobia Act in response to Islamophobic comments Boebert made about the bill's sponsor, Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat.
In announcing the bill, Omar said it is imperative to recognize and eradicate Islamophobia "as part of our commitment to international religious freedom and human rights."
The news of the endorsement was harshly criticized on social media, with many moving to condemn both Trump and Boebert.
Boebert sparked outrage and was accused of expressing anti-Muslim sentiment after she branded Omar a member of the "Jihad Squad."
The use of the term "Jihad Squad" has proven controversial.
Omar is one of three Muslim members of Congress, the others being Democrats André Carson (Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (Michigan).
She is also one of the members of "The Squad," a group of six Democratic members of the House that was initially composed of Omar, Tlaib, and their fellow Representatives Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts).
The phrase "Jihad Squad" first emerged in 2019 when the Illinois Republican County Chairman's Association included it in an image posted to their social media accounts that depicted the four women holding guns and standing defiantly.
The image has been included as evidence of the "process of radicalization," according to the political scientists Richard C. Fording and Sanford F. Schram, who in their book Hard White: The Mainstreaming of Racism in American Politics noted the image appeared to "anticipate being called out for racism" with a caption that read:
"Political Jihad Is Their Game: If you don't agree with their socialist ideology, you're racist."
Omar later issued a response calling Boebert a "deprived person who shamefully defecates & defiles the House of Representatives."
Trump, for his part, has in the past also spread conspiracy theories about Omar.
He once accused Omar of praising terrorists, a claim that has been thoroughly debunked but has continued to spread since he falsely claimed Omar talked "about how great Al Qaeda is" during a 2013 interview on a local PBS television show.
