Trump disparages Somali immigrants for the second straight day, saying they’ve ‘destroyed our country’

For the second day in a row, President Donald Trump engaged in hate speech against Somalia and Somali immigrants living in the United States, saying they had “destroyed Minnesota” and “our country.”

Minnesota, Trump said, is “hell right now. The Somalis should get out of here. They destroyed our country. And all they do is complain, complain, complain.”

The focus on Minnesota follows reports that dozens of people of Somali descent have been convicted of Covid relief fraud schemes that netted more than $1 billion. There are approximately 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 district. A senior law enforcement official told NBC News that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are not specifically targeting Somali immigrants and their families, but may arrest some who they believe have violated immigration laws.

Speaking to reporters after an event in the Oval Office, Trump intensified his attacks on Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on Wednesday, saying, “She should not be allowed to be a member of Congress, and I’m sure people are watching that. She should be kicked out of our country.”

“She always talks about the Constitution,” Trump continued in a mocking tone. “Go back to your own country and determine your own constitution,” he said of Omar, who fled Somalia during the civil war and lived in a Kenyan refugee camp before coming to the United States at age 12.

A representative for Omar did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s remarks.

Wednesday’s rant came shortly after Omar released a statement on X responding to Trump’s similar remarks the day before.

“My message to Trump: your message of intolerance will not work. Somali Americans are here to stay,” she wrote.

Sen. Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota, asked Wednesday about Trump’s previous remarks targeting Omar, said: “That’s what bigotry looks like. And it’s despicable.”

The president made his latest dehumanizing remarks after learning that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said he was “proud” to have a large Somali community in his city after Trump’s massacre of Somalis during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

“Then he’s a fool. I wouldn’t be proud,” Trump said.

“Look at their nation. Look at how bad their nation is – it’s not even a nation. It’s just people killing each other,” he said.

“Somalia is considered by many to be the worst country in the world,” Trump later said, adding that “what the Somali people have done to Minnesota is unbelievable.”

“They destroyed Minnesota,” he said.

Trump increasingly complains about Somali immigrants in Minnesota.

On Tuesday, he called Omar “trash” and said he didn’t want Somalis in the United States.

“Someone will say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is not good for a reason,” he said.

Trump has a history of denigrating Africans and migrant communities, something Omar highlighted Wednesday in an interview with MS NOW ahead of the president’s latest post. 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 their home countries. With the exception of Omar, everyone on the team was born in the United States.

“It’s not surprising that he would go after black immigrants in this country, and it’s certainly not surprising that he would single out a black immigrant community that is also Muslim,” Omar said on MS NOW.

“Most of us are citizens,” she added, and many have moved to the area because “the people of Minnesota and the state are beautiful and very welcoming and we will be here regardless of what the president has to say.”