By HAN News Desk
MINNEAPOLIS — US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has sharply criticised President Donald Trump after he launched a fresh series of attacks against her and the Somali community in Minnesota, describing immigrants from the East African nation as “garbage.”
Speaking during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the president disparaged Omar and Somali refugees, saying they should “leave the US” and accusing them of contributing nothing to the country. His remarks follow weeks of heightened anti-immigration rhetoric, particularly after the fatal shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC, last month.
Responding on social media, Omar wrote: “His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”
The suspect in the Washington shooting is an Afghan man evacuated to the United States in 2021 following the withdrawal of US and allied forces from Afghanistan. Trump has used the incident to push for broad restrictions on immigration from what he described as “third-world countries,” including Somalia.
“We’re going the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. Her friends are garbage,” Trump said during the meeting. He also accused Somali immigrants of “complaining” and contributing little to American society.
Omar, who fled Somalia’s civil war as a child and later became the first Somali American elected to the US Congress, represents a district in Minnesota with one of the largest Somali diaspora communities in the country. While the community faces higher poverty and unemployment rates compared with the national average, a 2021 Minnesota Chamber of Commerce report highlighted significant economic progress, noting declines in poverty, increased workforce participation, and rising household income levels.
Despite this, Trump has continued to focus on Minnesota’s Somali population. During his first term, he included Somalia in the so-called “Muslim ban,” which restricted travel from several Muslim-majority nations. More recently, he has cited a high-profile COVID-era welfare fraud scandal— in which several Somali immigrants were charged — as evidence of what he has called “failed immigration policies.”
His administration has also launched a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Minnesota that appears to be targeting Somali nationals. During the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump drew further outrage after using an ableist slur to criticise Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and claiming the state’s Somali “gangs” were “roving the streets.” He also mocked Omar’s Islamic headscarf, referring to her as being “wrapped in her swaddling hijab.”
Trump insisted he did not know Omar personally but accused her of “complaining about the US for years” and called her “an incompetent person.”
Progressive organisations condemned the president’s remarks. Justice Democrats described the attacks on Omar and the Somali community as “disgustingly racist,” accusing the administration of using fear and division to distract from policy failures. “Stoke hate, divide our communities, and send ICE in to terrorize our neighbours — pathetic,” the group said.
The latest clashes come as immigration remains one of the most polarising issues in the US political landscape, with Minnesota’s sizeable Somali community once again at the centre of national debate.
