'Why did you marry your brother?': Trump vs Ilhan Omar's war of words escalate after US President targets Somalis

A fresh war of words has erupted between US President Donald Trump and Somali-American community and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. During a recent cabinet meeting, President Trump embarked on a racist tirade, describing Omar and other Somali immigrants as “garbage” and calling for them to leave the US.

Trump targeted representative Ilhan Omar and repeated long-standing accusations surrounding her personal life. "They have a representative, Ilhan Omar, who they say married her brother. It's a fraud. She tries to deny it now but can’t really deny it, cuz yeah just happened.” He added that she “shouldn't be allowed to be the congresswomen” and should be “thrown hell out of our country.”

“His obsession with me is creepy,” Omar wrote on social media in response. “I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”


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Trump team snubs Ilhan Omar

When Ilhan Omar responded to Trump's rant against Somali diaspora in the US, Trump's team snubbed her using an old allegation of her doing an immigration fraud by marrying her biological brother. “Why did you marry your brother?” Rapid Response 47 wrote on X after Omar termed Trump's “obsession” with her as “creepy”.


Trump has repeatedly said that he doesn't want Somali immigrants in the US as he said the residents of the war-ravaged eastern African country rely a lot on US social safety net and add little to the United States. The US President mentioned Minnesota representative Omar saying, “You look at what he's done with Somalia where Somalia, which is barely a country -- they have no anything, they just run around killing each other. When I see somebody like Ilhan Omar, I always watch her, for years I've watched her complain about our Constitution ...”

He has also blamed the community for destroying Minnesota. “These people have destroyed Minnesota.” He also took aim at the Minnesota governor, “you have a incompetent governor, a crooked governor…he should be ashamed - a beautiful land and a beautiful state is a hell hole right now.

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Trump further went on to say the only thing Omar and the community does is complain about everything. “These people all they do is complain, complain, complain, You have her she’s always - constitution provides me - go back to your own country and figure out your constitution. All she does is complain about this country and without this country she would be in a very good shape and probably wouldn't be alive,” he said. Linking the arrival of Somali refugees to the Obama administration, Trump said, “What they have done to Minnesota has a lot to do with the governor and a lot to do with Barack Obama because that’s when these people started coming to our country.”

Trump vs Ilhan Omar

Trump has repeatedly targeted the Somali diaspora in the United States, many of whom have settled in Minnesota and other states as refugees since the 1990s.

His latest remark comes just days after his administration announced a freeze on all asylum decisions following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington. Although the suspect in last week’s incident is originally from Afghanistan, Trump has used the episode to cast broader doubts on immigrants from other countries, including Somalia.

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“They contribute nothing. I don't want them in our country,” Trump told reporters near the end of a lengthy Cabinet meeting. He added: "Their country is no good for a reason. Your country stinks and we don't want them in our country.”

Trump has vowed to send Somalis “back to where they came from,” and alleged Minnesota, home to the largest Somali community in the United States, is “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.” On Tuesday, the president said Somalis in the U.S. should “go back to where they came from and fix it.”