What Trump said about Somalia and Somali people
"They just run around killing each other. There's no structure."
2d agoWILLIAM WANYOIKEInfographics
Somali-born Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar has rebuked US President Donald Trump after he publicly disparaged her and the Somali-American community, calling them “garbage.”
The exchange has stirred widespread condemnation, intensifying debate over racism, immigration and US military policy.
In an interview with MSNBC, Omar called the remarks “creepy” and “unhealthy,” describing Trump’s fixation on her and the Somali community as an obsession.
She said she hopes he “gets the help he needs.”
"His obsession with me is creepy," Omar responded in a social media post. "I hope he gets the help he desperately needs"
Omar claimed Trump was using hateful rhetoric as a diversion.
“It sounds like he is trying to deflect from the failures that he’s had as president,” she said, pointing to mounting criticisms over immigration, economic policy, and a wave of controversial military strikes ordered under his administration.
Speaking in the Cabinet on December 2, President Trump launched a blistering tirade against Somali immigrants and singled out Omar by name.
"Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage," he said.
He also accused Somali migrants of contributing nothing, complaining constantly and suggested they should leave the country.
Trump added that he did not want them “in our country,” claiming their homeland “stinks” and denigrating their contributions.
His comments came as immigration authorities were reported to be planning an enforcement operation in Minnesota's large Somali community.
Minneapolis and St Paul, which together are known as the Twin Cities, are home to one of the largest Somali communities in the world and the largest in the US.
The reported plan and Trump's comments represent an intensification of the president's recent attacks on Minnesota's Somali community, whose decades-long protected status in the US he recently pledged to revoke, and its Democratic politicians.
Omar’s reference to military operations relates to a series of airstrikes ordered by the administration against suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific — part of what is being called Operation Southern Spear.
Critics argue these actions risk violating international and U.S. law.
Meanwhile, domestic crackdowns on immigrant communities, including increased scrutiny of Somali-American households in Minnesota after welfare fraud charges, have coincided with the president’s harsh rhetoric toward immigrants.
Omar warned that these attacks, both rhetorical and policy-driven, could intimidate already marginalised communities and deepen xenophobia in the U.S.
She pledged to continue fighting what she described as “scapegoating” and “bigotry.”
Leaders and advocates have condemned Trump’s remarks.
Within Minnesota and across Somali-American communities, many described the president’s comments as racist and deeply hurtful.
Some Democratic lawmakers and civil rights organisations have denounced the comments and called for stronger protections for immigrant communities.
Internationally, the remarks have reverberated in Somalia and parts of the global Somali diaspora, prompting outrage and calls for condemnation from global human-rights advocates.
