Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) lashed out at President Donald Trump on Wednesday, calling him “creepy” and “obsessed” after the president referred to her and Somali migrants as “garbage” during a closed-door Cabinet meeting that has reignited tensions between the White House and Minnesota’s Somali-American community.
The exchange marked the latest escalation in a long-running feud between the president and one of his most frequent critics in Congress.
During Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump delivered blunt remarks while discussing new immigration policies following last week’s release of updated enforcement guidance.
“We could go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” Trump said, according to an official readout confirmed by Fox News. “She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren’t people who work. These aren’t people who say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great.’”
Trump went on to link his criticism to recent federal prosecutions in Minnesota, where the Justice Department charged dozens of individuals — many of them Somali nationals — in a $250 million pandemic-era fraud scheme involving a federally funded child-nutrition program. “When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but b—-, we don’t want them in our country,” Trump added. “Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”
The Minnesota congresswoman responded on X: “His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”
Jihadi Congresswoman Ilhan Omar @IlhanMN became belligerent, saying, “I’ll be around longer than Trump,” “Trump is deranged,” and “I am not going anywhere,” after @loomerunleashed @thecharlesdowns asked her today if President Trump was right when he said she married her brother. https://t.co/JTvW4DguDI pic.twitter.com/aCLUaz5vtZ
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) December 2, 2025
His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs. https://t.co/pxOpAChHse
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) December 2, 2025
Omar argued Trump’s remarks were meant to distract from what she called “his failed policies” and ongoing political controversies.
“His immigration rates are not going the way he expected. His tariffs are not working to make life affordable for Americans,” she said. “He is afraid of what is in the Epstein files and is fighting to be the head of the pedophile protection party.” She also accused Trump of facing “investigation for war crimes” related to recent U.S. strikes on a drug-running vessel in the Caribbean — an allegation the White House strongly denies.
Omar, who was born in Somalia and came to the United States as a refugee in the 1990s, also responded in a CNN interview about reports that massive amounts of fraud went to Somali immigrants in Minnesota.
BREAKING: Ilhan Omar is now saying that it’s NOT Somalis fault for STEALING MILLIONS of taxpayer funds.
“I just think that a lot of the Covid programs that were set up, they were set up so quickly that a lot of the guard rails did not get created.”
DEPORT. pic.twitter.com/ZAnlIllVi8
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) December 3, 2025
“I just think that a lot of the Covid programs that were set up, they were set up so quickly that a lot of the guard rails did not get created,” she said.
“I would say your message of bigotry is not working,” Omar also said. “Your intimidations are not going to work on the Somali community who have survived so much. His deflection and scapegoating are not going to work.”
Trump has been pushing for a full halt on refugee resettlement from countries he says “export extremism and crime.” His administration has also ordered a review of all green card holders from 19 nations on the U.S. travel-restriction list, including Somalia.
Trump intensified the feud again Friday, posting on Truth Social: “The worst ‘Congressman/woman’ in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab… does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how ‘badly’ she is treated.” He accused Omar of “probably coming into the U.S.A. illegally” and suggested she “married her brother,” repeating a longstanding allegation Omar has indirectly denied.
Omar brushed off Trump’s rhetoric when approached by reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, saying only, “I’ll be around longer than Trump.” Obviously, not if she gets deported.
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