President Donald Trump ended his Cabinet meeting on Tuesday unleashing criticism against Somali immigrants, whom he described as “trash,” saying that he does not want them in the United States.
“You know, our country is at a turning point. We could go wrong. We’re at a turning point. I don’t know if people care if I say that, but I say it,” Trump said. “We could go one way or another, and We will go down the wrong path if we continue to assimilate trash to our country.”
He attributed the same description to Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali American representing Minnesota, who responded on social media that Trump’s “obsession with me is creepy.”
“I hope he gets the help he so desperately needs,” he added.
Minneapolis City Councilman Jamal Osman makes a phone call in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood amid reports of a planned federal operation against Somali immigrants, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., on December 2, 2025.
Tim Evans/Reuters
Trump’s attacks on the Somali American community are in stark contrast to last year, when he campaigned for re-election and won support from that voting bloc.
Trump was asked why Minnesota’s Somali community should support him during an interview with podcast host Liz Collin in July 2024.
“Because they want security, they want security…they want security like everyone else,” he said in the interview, which took place before a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, which also has a sizable Somali population.
Salman Fiqy, a Somali American from Minnesota who emerged as one of Trump’s most vocal supporters within the community, speak to the Sahan Journal in July 2024, about how he confronted Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric, including the 2017 “Muslim ban.”
“It bothered us,” Fiqy said in 2024, referring to Trump’s remarks about Somali refugees at the time. “But I think most realize that it was a political statement to rally his base.”
The president’s rebuke of the Somali community, specifically those in Minnesota, came amid a tug-of-war between the CEO and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whom Trump called on to resign amid a welfare “scandal.”
The New York Times published an investigation last week about fraud allegedly perpetrated by Somali immigrants against Minnesota’s social services system. The Times account details claims by law enforcement officials that over the past five years, “the fraud took root in parts of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora.”
Critics reportedly said some of that alleged fraud continued because state officials under Walz did not want to alienate the Somali population.
In response to the New York Times investigation, Walz said in a social media post Tuesday that the welcomes “support for the investigation and prosecution of crimes. But doing a public relations stunt and indiscriminately attacking immigrants is not a real solution to a problem.”
Trump has seized on the growing controversy in recent days by linking Omar, a longtime political foe, to dissent over welfare, something he has also repeated in recent weeks.
Most Somalis initially arrived in the United States as refugees after the civil war of the 1990s, with more than 260,000 decently Somali people living throughout the country, according to the US census.
About 73% of Somali immigrants are naturalized citizens, according to the census.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told reporters that the city is home to more than 80,000 Somali immigrants and the majority are American citizens.
He rejected the administration’s rhetoric Tuesday afternoon and said the city would support the Somali community.
“It will be virtually inevitable that when people are arrested by federal immigration agents, they will find the wrong people. They will make mistakes,” he said. “They are going to screw it up so much that not only are they violating habeas corpus, but they are also taking away the rights of American citizens.”
Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric has also increased following the alleged shooting last week of two members of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., by an Afghan national. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, was charged Tuesday with murder.
Tom Homan, the federal border czar, said Tuesday that there will be a “surge” in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Minnesota, but he declined to give any insight into when that might happen.
President Donald Trump rises to leave after a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Washington.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
“Yes, there will be an increase in activity up there,” Homan told FOX News. “We’re going to hold people accountable. We’re going to unapologetically enforce the laws of this country.”
Minneapolis City Councilman Jamal Osman criticized the Trump administration for “singling out” a population.
“Our Somali American neighbors, the vast majority of them American citizens, deserve to feel safe in their own country,” he said. saying on social networks. “Why are some Americans ‘other’? Haven’t we learned anything?”
Sabina from ABC News Ghebremedhin and christina Cordero contributed to this report.
