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What began earlier this month as a viral jab from the White House at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has since evolved into a broader political clash, with President Donald Trump intensifying his criticism of the Somali-born congresswoman and the Somali refugee community in the United States.
During an October appearance on The Dean Obeidallah Show, Omar said she was not concerned about the possibility of losing her U.S. citizenship or being deported to Somalia, where she was born.
“I have no worry. I don’t know how they could take away my citizenship and deport me,” Omar said. “But I also don’t understand why that threat is supposed to be so frightening. I’m no longer the 8-year-old who fled a war. I’m an adult, my children are grown, and I could live wherever I choose.”
On Nov. 10, the White House posted on X a 2024 photo of Trump waving from a McDonald’s drive-thru window in response to a clip of Omar saying she was unconcerned about deportation.
The image — taken during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania — quickly spread online and was widely interpreted as a mocking “good-bye” message directed at the Minnesota lawmaker.
The dispute has since resurfaced. Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump referenced allegations that Omar entered the United States through a fraudulent marriage.
“She supposedly came into our country by marrying her brother,” he said. “If that’s true, she shouldn’t be serving in Congress, and we should throw her out of the country.”
The president also expanded his criticism to Somali immigration more broadly.
“Somalis have caused us a lot of trouble, and they cost us a lot of money,” Trump said. “Why are we paying Somalia at all? We have Ilhan Omar, who does nothing but criticize our Constitution and our country. We’re not taking their people anymore — in fact, we’re sending them back.”
Trump has frequently accused Omar of being “anti-American,” and in the past told her and other progressive members of the “Squad” to “go back” to their “broken and crime-infested countries.” Earlier this month, Omar responded by calling Trump a “lying buffoon” and saying his claim that Somalia’s president refused to take her back was fabricated.
The White House has indicated it will not retract the president’s latest remarks. A senior aide said Trump was “reminding voters that America’s generosity should never be repaid with contempt.”
Omar’s family fled Somalia’s civil war in 1991 and spent several years in a refugee camp in Kenya before eventually settling in the United States. She was elected to Congress in 2018, becoming one of the first Muslim women and the first Somali American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The renewed clash highlights the ongoing political tension between Trump and progressive members of the “Squad.” It also comes amid broader debates over immigration policy and the screening of migrants following a Thanksgiving-holiday shooting involving an Afghan refugee that left two National Guard members injured.
