in a speech that came as the government was reportedly increasing enforcement of immigration laws against undocumented Somalis in Minnesota. In a xenophobic speech during a cabinet meeting, Trump attacked Somalis and Ilhan Omar, the Somali-born U.S. congresswoman. He said Somalia “stinks” and “is good for nothing.” “They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country, to be honest,” he said. He called Omar “trash” and said, “We’re headed down the wrong path if we keep bringing trash into our country.” Trump has intensified his anti-immigrant rhetoric in recent weeks, particularly after the fatal shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., last month. The suspect in the shooting is an Afghan who was evacuated from the country in 2021, following the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces. Trump has used the shooting as justification for tightening immigration from what he described as “third world countries,” including Somalia. “(In Minnesota) welfare is like 88%, they don’t contribute anything. I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with somebody who says, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Your country is no good. Your country sucks, and we don’t want them in our country. I could say the same thing about other countries,” the president charged. “…We’re going down the wrong path if we keep bringing trash into our country. Ilhan Omar is trash. She’s trash. Her friends are trash. These are people who work. These are people who say, ‘Come on, come on.’” Let's make this place a great place.” These are people who do nothing but complain. They complain, and where they came from, they got nothing. You know, they came from Paradise and said, “This isn't Paradise.” But when they come from Hell and complain and do nothing but complain,“We don’t want them in our country. Let them go back where they came from and fix it,” he declared.

Trump claimed not to know Ilhan Omar at all, but said he has seen her complain about the United States for years. “I think she’s an incompetent person. She’s a really terrible person,” he stated.

Omar, a former child refugee who fled Somalia’s long-running civil war, is considered the first Somali-American to serve in the U.S. Congress. She represents a congressional district in Minnesota that is home to one of the largest Somali diaspora communities in the country.