Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar said Donald Trump’s focus on her has become “beyond weird” after the president once again encouraged supporters at a rally on Tuesday to revive the 2019 “send her back” chant.
At an “Affordability” rally in Pennsylvania, ostensibly aimed at voters worried about rising prices, Trump pivoted repeatedly to immigration and to Omar, the Minnesota lawmaker he often singles out. He mocked her, repeated false claims about her citizenship status, and openly embraced his previously denied description of some nations as “s***hole countries.”
Why It Matters
Trump has long used hardline immigration rhetoric as the backbone of his political identity, casting himself as a defender of the border and law-and-order while portraying opponents as weak. That message has helped him energize his base around promises of mass deportations and sweeping restrictions on migration.
Immigration remains one of the most divisive issues in American politics, shaped by worries over the economy, border security, and the rule of law, as well as deeper clashes over identity and belonging. Omar, the first Somali American elected to Congress, has become one of Trump’s most frequent targets, and earlier this month he again attacked the Somali community in Minnesota.
What To Know
On Tuesday, Trump ridiculed Omar from the stage, saying:
“Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is. With her little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but b****…we ought to get her the hell out…she’s here illegally.”
The crowd responded with chants of “send her back!”—echoing the notorious call that erupted at his 2019 rally in Greenville, North Carolina.
Omar fired back in a post on X, writing:
“Trump’s obsession with me is beyond weird. He needs serious help. Since he has no economic policies to tout, he’s resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead. He continues to be a national embarrassment.”
Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1982. Her family fled the civil war when she was 8 and spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before being granted asylum and arriving in the U.S. in 1995. She became a naturalized American citizen in 2000, at age 17. As a U.S. citizen and a member of Congress, she cannot be deported under U.S. law.
U.S. citizens are not subject to civil immigration enforcement by agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Nonetheless, some conservative figures have repeatedly called for Omar’s denaturalization and deportation, citing unproven allegations of marriage or immigration fraud—claims she has rejected.
During his Pennsylvania remarks, Trump also approvingly revisited his 2018 Oval Office comment referring to Haiti and African nations as “s***hole countries,” a remark he previously denied making. After someone in the crowd shouted the phrase, he recounted:
“We had a meeting and I said, ‘Why is it we only take people from s***hole countries… Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden?’”
He then described Somalia as “filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime,” and touted what he called a “permanent pause on Third World migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and many other countries.”
His rhetoric built on earlier comments. At a December 2 Cabinet meeting, Trump said of the Somali community:
“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country. We can go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”
The next day, at a White House event, he told reporters:
“Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country.”
At the Pennsylvania rally, Trump also claimed that “25 million people came into our country, totally unchecked and unvetted,” tying illegal immigration to inflation—an argument he has repeated often. He went on to praise North Korea’s border as “one of the strongest borders anywhere in the world,” describing “seven walls of wire.”
What People Are Saying
In extended remarks about Omar at the rally, Trump told supporters:
“Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is. With her little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but b****, she’s always complaining. She comes from a country, it’s considered about the worst country in the world. They have no military, they have no nothing, they have no parliament. They don’t know what the hell parliament means. They have nothing, they have no police, they police themselves, they kill each other all the time. She comes to our country, and she’s always complaining, ‘the constitution allows me to do this.’ We ought to get her the hell out. She married her brother in order to get in. She married her brother. Can you imagine if Donald Trump married his sister?—she’s a beautiful person—if I married my sister to get my citizenship, do you think I would last for two hours, or would it be something less than that? She married her brother to get in, therefore she’s here illegally.”
Following Trump’s December 2 comments, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont condemned the attacks on X, writing:
“When demagogues like Trump are in trouble, they reach for the same playbook: racism, hatred and division, this time against Rep. Ilhan Omar and the Somali-American community. It’s disgusting. It’s un-American. And it won’t work.”
What Happens Next
Trump’s renewed focus on Omar, immigration, and “s***hole countries” is likely to intensify scrutiny of his campaign message as he attempts to link voters’ affordability concerns to border policy and demographic fears.
With Omar accusing him of leaning on “bigoted lies” instead of offering concrete plans on inflation and the cost of living, the Pennsylvania rally could influence how both parties shape their next moves on immigration, the economy and appeals to voters heading into the next phase of the campaign.
