For a second day in a row, President Donald Trump launched into a hate-filled rant against Somalia and Somali immigrants living in the U.S., saying they’ve “destroyed Minnesota” and “our country.”
Minnesota, Trump said, is “a hellhole right now. The Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country. And all they do is complain, complain, complain.”
The focus on Minnesota comes after news reports that dozens of people of Somali descent have been convicted in fraud schemes related to Covid relief that netted over $1 billion. There are about 80,000 people of Somali descent in Minnesota.
Trump’s remarks also coincided with the first day of his administration's immigration crackdown in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. A senior law enforcement administration official told NBC News that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are not specifically targeting Somali immigrants and their families, but may be arresting some who they allege have violated immigration laws.
Speaking to reporters after an event in the Oval Office, Trump amped up his attacks on Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on Wednesday saying, “She shouldn’t be allowed to be a congresswoman, and I’m sure people are looking at that. She should be thrown the hell out of our country.”
“She’s always talking about the Constitution," Trump continued in a mocking tone. "Go back to your own country and figure out your own constitution," he said of Omar, who fled Somalia during the country’s civil war and lived in a Kenyan refugee camp before coming to the U.S. at age 12.
A representative for Omar did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's remarks.
The diatribe Wednesday came shortly after Omar posted a statement on X responding to similar remarks from Trump the previous day.
"My message to Trump: Your message of bigotry won’t work. Somali Americans are here to stay," she wrote.
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., asked Wednesday about Trump’s earlier remarks targeting Omar, said, “This is what bigotry looks like. And it’s despicable.”
The president made his latest dehumanizing remarks after being told that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said he was “proud” to have a large Somali community in his city following Trump’s trashing of Somalis at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.
“Then he’s a fool. I wouldn’t be proud,” Trump said.
“Look at their nation. Look how bad their nation — it’s not even a nation. It’s just people walking around killing each other,” he said.
"Somalia is considered by many to be the worst country on Earth," Trump said later, adding that "what the Somalian people have done to Minnesota is not even believable."
"They have destroyed Minnesota," he said.
Trump has complained about Somali immigrants in Minnesota in escalating terms.
On Tuesday, he called Omar "garbage" and said he did not want Somalis in the U.S.
"Somebody will say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason,” he said.
Trump has a history of disparaging Africans and migrant communities, something Omar noted in an interview Wednesday with MS NOW before the president's latest broadside. The president has mocked and criticized Omar for years, including tweeting in 2019 that she and three fellow progressive Democrats and women of color known as "The Squad" should "go back" to the countries they came from. With the exception of Omar, all squad members were born in the U.S.
"It is not surprising he is going after Black immigrants in this country, and it's certainly not surprising he's choosing a Black immigrant community that is also Muslim," Omar said on MS NOW.
"Most of us are citizens," she added, and many moved to the area because "the Minnesota people, and the state, is beautiful and very welcoming and we are going to be here regardless of what the president has to say."
