Trump’s transport secretary Elaine Chao says she won’t respond to his racist attack on her

Former Trump administration Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao has said she won’t respond to the racist name-calling the former president engaged in during a rant aimed at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Mr Trump called Ms Chao, who is married to Mr McConnell, "Coco Chow" in a Truth Social screed aimed at turning his base against the longtime Senator.

“Is McConnell approving all of these trillions of dollars worth of Democrat-sponsored bills, without even the slightest bit of negotiation, because he hates Donald J. Trump, and he knows I am strongly opposed to them, or is he doing it because he believes in the fake and highly destructive green new deal, and is willing to take the country down with him? In any event, either reason is unacceptable," Mr Trump wrote on his personal social media platform Truth Social. “He has a DEATH WISH. Must immediately seek help and advise from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!"

During a Fox Business interview with host Stuart Varney, Ms Chao said she would not respond to Mr Trump’s attacks against her and her husband.

"Former President Trump attacked you on the grounds of your ethnicity," Mr Varney said, opening the door for Ms Chao to respond.

"The president says many things. I don’t make a point of responding to his comments," she replied.

Mr Varney went further, saying "we were all appalled at what he said."

Some Republican lawmakers pushed back on Mr Trump’s racist tirade.

"It’s never, ever OK to be a racist," Senator Rick Scott told CNN during an interview. "I think you always have to be careful, you know, if you’re in the public eye … how you say things. You want to make sure you’re inclusive."

Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former White House comms director during Mr Trump’s tenure, tweeted that he was "not even trying to hide the racism at this point," calling his comments "just despicable."

Another conservative pundit who once worked for Mr McConnell, Scott Jennings, told CNN that Mr Trump’s rant could double as "assassination instructions" against Mr McConnell. Mr Jennings called on "every Republican" to disavow Mr Trump.

“I mean, if you read that whole thing out loud, if you were on the street, and you heard someone muttering that on a street corner, you wouldn’t say, ‘Hmm, let’s hand this person the presidency or the Republican nomination for president,’" Mr Jennings said. “You would say, ‘Call 911. Because it sounds like an unhinged, deranged person has gotten loose and is out on the street and may be a danger to themselves and others.’"

Mr Trump has previously attacked Ms Chao on Truth Social; in August, he called the former official "crazy" and said Republicans were getting "rich on China."