A spat between US President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders in the state of Washington escalated on Thursday as the governor of the western state and the mayor of Seattle told Trump off in a series of tit-for-tat tweets.
The rebuke from Governor Jay Inslee and Mayor Jenny Durkan -- who urged Trump to "make us all safe. Go back to your bunker" -- came after the president threatened to intervene over a police-free autonomous zone set up in Seattle this week by protesters.
"Take back your city NOW. If you don't do it, I will," Trump warned the two leaders in a tweet late Wednesday, calling the protesters "domestic terrorists" who have taken over Seattle.
"This is not a game. These ugly Anarchists must be stooped (sic) IMMEDIATELY. MOVE FAST," he continued in another tweet.
He lashed out at the two leaders again on Thursday after both mocked him.
"A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state's business. 'Stoop' tweeting," Inslee wrote.
Trump's anger was in response to the neighbourhood in Seattle dubbed "Capital Hill Autonomous Zone," which was agreed upon thereby demonstrators protesting police brutality and racism, and the city's police department.
Similar protests have taken place across the country following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
Officials in Seattle have denied reports that left-wing activists are behind the setting up of the autonomous zone described "as an experiment in life without the police -- part street festival and part commune," by the New York Times.