President Donald Trump faced mounting criticism after referring to Somali immigrants as "garbage," singling out Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who arrived in the United States in 1995 after her family fled Somalia's civil war.
Trump made the comments during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday while discussing the situation in Minnesota under Democrat Gov. Tim Walz, who was former Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate last year.
Minnesota is confronting a massive fraud scandal within its social services agencies, with many of those implicated being of Somali descent. The state has the nation's largest population of Somalis.
Trump said the U.S. is at a tipping point "if we keep taking in garbage into our country."
"Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage," he said. "Her friends are garbage.
"These aren't people that work."
"These aren't people that say, Let's go. Come on, Let's make this place great," Trump continued.
"These are people that do nothing but complain. They complain.
"And from where they came from, they got nothing. You know, [if] they came from paradise and they said, This isn't paradise.
"But when they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but [expletive], we don't want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it."
Omar, who became a naturalized citizen in 2000, fired back Tuesday on X.
"His obsession with me is creepy," she wrote. "I hope he gets the help he desperately needs."
She also said in an interview that Somalis "are not, and I am not, someone to be intimidated, and we are not going to be scapegoated. We are here to stay."
Melvin Carter, the Democrat mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota, pushed back on the president's remarks.
"The president of the United States opened his mouth to take a whole group of people and denigrate them," he said.
"It seems to many of us that the darker skinned many of our immigrants are, the more our posture on immigration has shifted."
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said Tuesday on X: "Minneapolis is proud to be home to the largest Somali community in the country.
"They are our neighbors, our friends, and our family — and they are welcome in our city.
"Nothing Donald Trump does will ever change that."
The editorial board of The Minnesota Star Tribune on Wednesday called Trump's remarks "beyond reprehensible."
"Minnesota is home to the nation's largest Somali community," the board wrote. "These residents are our colleagues, friends, law enforcement officers, public servants, neighbors and taxpayers."
"That Trump would demonize an entire diaspora — the vast majority of whom live here as legal citizens or permanent residents — is beyond reprehensible. It's dangerous," the board wrote.
Anwar Abdifatah Bashir, executive director of the East African Institute for Peace and Governance, described Trump's comments as "naked insults," but said the Somali government was unlikely to criticize the Trump administration because the U.S. still provides Somalia with some financial support.
Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said Wednesday it was "better not to respond" to Trump's comments.
"We are not the only country that Trump insults," Barre told an audience at an innovation summit in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, in response to a question about Trump's comments.
"Sometimes it's better not to respond."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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