During an exchange with reporters aboard Air Force One, President Donald Trump reignited long-running controversies surrounding Rep. Ilhan Omar, suggesting she should not remain in the United States if allegations about her past are accurate. Pointing to years of claims about her immigration history, he said the situation is reason enough to expel her.
“Somalia, where you have a Congressman goes around telling everybody about our Constitution, yet she supposedly came into our country by marrying her brother,” Trump said while speaking to reporters on Air Force One. “Well, if that’s true, she shouldn’t be a Congressman, and we should throw her the —- out of our country.”
Trump, continuing his remarks, argued that the U.S. doesn’t benefit from individuals who arrive in the country only to, in his words, lecture Americans. While fielding questions, he noted that the nation does not need people “telling us what to do.”
His pointed comments emerged as Democrats — with Omar at the forefront — have been vigorously defending Minnesota’s Somali community. That defense has drawn scrutiny amid reports alleging “widespread fraud of taxpayers’ healthcare programs” tied to Somali-run operations. Trump, for his part, has repeatedly vowed to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) amnesty for Somali nationals, citing concerns about billions in missing funds.
Breitbart’s Warner Todd Huston documented Omar’s response to Trump’s rhetoric, noting that she accused him of issuing “lawless threats” toward Somali immigrants. Huston wrote that Omar has adopted an aggressive tone in pushing back, standing firmly with Somalians while targeting Trump’s comments.
“Unsurprisingly, Somali native and U.S. congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been very vocal in her support for her fellow countrymen. She has also attacked Trump for ‘lawless threats’ she says he has leveled against Somalians.”
Trump’s criticisms escalated further in a Thanksgiving post on Truth Social, where he blasted both Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Omar. He cast Omar as a constant critic of America, invoking harsh and inflammatory language while accusing her of benefiting from fraudulent immigration.
“The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both, while the worst ‘Congressman/woman’ in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab, and who probably came into the U.S.A. illegally in that you are not allowed to marry your brother, does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how ‘badly’ she is treated, when her place of origin is a decadent, backward, and crime ridden nation, which is essentially not even a country for lack of Government, Military, Police, schools, etc,” Trump said.
Long before these exchanges, conservative writers had been pressing the same accusations. Powerline reported in early 2020 that the Daily Mail had revealed statements from a Somali community figure claiming Omar “DID marry her brother” and had admitted she would do whatever necessary to secure U.S. documentation for him.
The blog’s February update leaned heavily on a report by Martin Gould: “Is there anyone in the world who doesn’t know that Ilhan Omar married her brother in 2009? It has been my mission in life to get the word out over the past three and a half years. Today Martin Gould reports for The Daily Mail: ‘Ilhan Omar DID marry her brother and said she would “do what she had to do to get him “papers” to keep him in U.S.”, reveals Somali community leader.’ Maybe word will get out now that is has been reported in the most widely read English-language news site in the world.”
Gould’s findings came after spending time in Minneapolis and reconnecting with the original Somali source who first brought the allegations to light. Powerline described the relationship between the writer and the source, Abdihaikm Osman Nur, tracing it back nearly a decade and detailing the efforts made to corroborate the story.
A separate Powerline entry from July 2019 resurfaced additional claims asserting that Omar’s entire arrival in the U.S. was based on an invented identity. According to the report, Omar allegedly “entered the United States as a fraudulent member of the ‘Omar’ family,” joining relatives who were not biologically connected to her in order to secure asylum.
The article outlined the alleged split within her genetic family, claiming that three members came to America under falsified names while the rest obtained asylum in the United Kingdom. The outlet reiterated that her birth name was Ilhan Nur Said Elmi and noted that she and Ahmed Nur Said Elmi were married in 2009 and “did not divorce until 2017.”
In September, Trump again took to Truth Social to condemn Somalia, describing the country as mired in chaos and dysfunction. He also revisited the accusation that Omar had circumvented immigration rules, questioning how someone in her position could dictate policy to the United States.
In that post, he argued that Somalia was “plagued by a lack of central Government control, persistent Poverty, Hunger, Resurgent Terrorism, Piracy, decades of Civil War, Corruption, and pervasive Violence.” He went on to criticize Omar for telling the U.S. government “how to run America” and wondered aloud whether she was “the one that married her brother in order to gain Citizenship.”
{Matzav.com}
