Trump Calls Somali Immigrants ‘Garbage’ in Televised Tirade: ‘Their Country Stinks’

President Donald Trump used a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 2, to launch a series of attacks on Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Somali immigrants, calling them “garbage” and suggesting they should “go back to where they came from.”

Speaking near the end of the two-hour session at the White House during a discussion about immigration and the Somali community in Minnesota, Trump, 79, said, according to a clip shared by the White House: “I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you … Somebody will say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country.”

“Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don’t want them in our country,” he continued, adding that he could “say that about other countries too.”

He then claimed the United States was at a “tipping point” and warned it could “go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”

Trump’s remarks came shortly after The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors had charged dozens of people in Minnesota with felonies in an alleged fraud scheme.

According to the outlet, those involved are accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a federal program meant to feed children during the Covid-19 pandemic. Fifty-nine people have already been convicted in connection with alleged fraud, and prosecutors are investigating three schemes that together may have diverted more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds over the past five years. Prosecutors say the fraud occurred within Minnesota’s Somali diaspora, the newspaper reported.

A senior law enforcement official later told NBC News that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is “planning an operation” in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area this week, but said officers would not specifically target Somalis. The outlet noted that some Somali immigrants could still be arrested if they are found to be violating immigration laws.

During Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump also singled out Rep. Ilhan Omar, who made history in 2019 as the first Somali American elected to Congress.

“Ilhan Omar is garbage. Her friends are garbage,” Trump said. “These aren’t people that work. These aren’t people that say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great.’ These are people that do nothing but complain.”

“You know, if they came from paradise, and they said, ‘This isn’t paradise,’ but when they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but b—-, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it,” he added.

After Trump’s comments circulated, Omar reposted portions of his remarks about Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, 61, and the Somali community on X, noting that he has accused her of complaining about the U.S. Constitution “for years.”

“His obsession with me is creepy,” she wrote. “I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson later issued a statement defending Trump’s remarks, saying the president was “absolutely right to highlight the problems caused” by Somali immigrants. The statement echoed several of Trump’s talking points and concluded, “While the media feigns outrage, Americans who have suffered at the hands of these schemes will celebrate the President’s comments and strong support for AMERICAN citizens.”

Trump’s latest comments followed a separate outburst over Thanksgiving targeting Walz and the Somali community in Minnesota on his Truth Social platform.

He then repeated a slur while speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Nov. 30, as he flew back to Washington, D.C., from Florida.

“Yeah, I think there’s something wrong with him, absolutely, sure,” Trump said of Walz, according to a clip shared by the White House. “I think there’s something wrong with him.”

“Anybody that would do what he did, anybody that would allow those people into a state and pay billions of dollars [to] Somalia — we give billions of dollars to Somalia,” Trump continued.

“It’s not even a country, because it doesn’t function like a country. It’s got a name, but it doesn’t function like a country. Yeah, there’s something wrong with Walz,” he said.

Amid Trump’s repeated attacks and the fraud allegations involving some members of the Somali community, many Somali Americans say they feel unfairly targeted and blamed for the actions of a few.

“The actions of a small group have made it easier for people already inclined to reject us to double down,” Abdi Mohamed, a filmmaker in Minneapolis, told The New York Times. “The broader Somali community — hardworking, family-oriented, deeply committed to Minnesota — is left carrying that burden.”