Overview
- President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric this week by describing Minnesota’s Somali community as “garbage,” calling Rep. Ilhan Omar “garbage,” and saying Somalia “stinks,” according to Fox News and HuffPost.
- Walz said the comments were “unprecedented for a United States president,” adding that children in the state heard their president call them garbage.
- The administration launched immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota that target migrants living among Somali communities, and community advocates reported increased fear.
- On Thanksgiving, Trump claimed he was terminating Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in the state and later said “Somalians should be out of here.”
- Following a conservative outlet’s allegation that pandemic-era fraud sent funds to al-Shabab, the Treasury Department opened a probe, and Somali American Republican Mohamed Ahmed rebuked the president, saying, “My children are not garbage.”