Ilhan Omar on Trump’s attacks on Somali-Americans

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:06Today, what does it feel like to be the target of the world's most powerful man?

0:18Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is no stranger to political attacks. She's a woman. She's a Democrat. She's black. And she's an immigrant. all of which have made her a perfect target for US President Donald Trump. All she does is complain, complain, complain. She comes out of a country where they have no government, they have no military, they have no police, they don't have a country. But even so, what happened last week felt different. David Smith, the Guardian's Washington bureau chief, was among those watching Trump's televised speech in Pennsylvania. I love this Ilan Omar, whatever the hell her name is.

0:58He revived a conspiracy theory that she married her brother to become a US citizen. We ought to get her the hell out. She married her brother in order to get in, right? She married her brother. He mocked her hijab. With a little shoe, a little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but bitch. She's always complained. And basically it was deeply insulting about her and the crowd there loved it and were chanting, send her back, send her back.

1:34Nearly a year into Donald Trump's second term, we're used to outrageous statements. But hearing such explicit racism from the US president was genuinely shocking. Now Ilhan Omar has told David, she and her community are bracing themselves for what might come next. These are people who have been mobilising themselves and preparing for his presidency. We have dealt with authoritarianism, we have dealt with dictatorship and so we are vigilant. And the community is showing just how resilient it is. From The Guardian, I'm Annie Kelly. Today in Focus, Ilhan Omar and Trump's vilification of Somali Americans.

2:23So, David, this has been a week where we've seen Donald Trump using the most overtly racist language we've ever heard from him in public, directed against the Somali American community, particularly in Minnesota. He's also at the same time directed some really vicious personal attacks against one of the U.S.'s most high-profile Somali Americans. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Can you just start by telling me a little bit about her? Yeah, Ilhan Omar was born in Somalia. She and her family fled the country's civil war when she was eight years old. They spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the US in the 1990s.

3:04In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family. And in 2000, she became a US citizen. She went into politics, starting with the state house in Minnesota, and was very quickly a rising star, ran for the US Congress in 2018, and became the first Somali-American congresswoman. I stand here before you tonight as your congresswoman-elect, with many words behind my name.

3:41The first woman of colour to represent our state in Congress. The first woman to wear a hijab. The first refugee ever elected to Congress. And a real trailblazer and a member of the squad, a group of progressive congresswomen that also includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And you met with Omar for The Guardian at her office in Capitol Hill to talk about the events of the past few weeks. Before we get into that meeting, could you just very briefly give us the context in which your meeting with her took place? Donald Trump has been intensifying again his Islamophobic and xenophobic rhetoric. Last week, he held an event in Pennsylvania that was ostensibly about affordability and the cost of living, but could not resist pivoting to more racially divisive rhetoric.

4:42And he targeted Somali Americans and specifically Ilhan Omar. So in that context of her being called out and targeted by the President of the United States, we wanted to get her reaction and what it's like to be in that position. And tell us about the meeting. What was it like? Well, you walk into one of these big office buildings on Capitol Hill, right by the US Capitol Dome itself. All these members of Congress have individual offices. Each member can't choose who their neighbours are. So I actually walked past some of the offices of Republicans, who've got memorials to Charlie Kirk, the right wing activist who was killed.

5:26And you know, these are the neighbours of Ilhan Omar in some cases. But you know, knock on her door and you walk in and there's various pictures on the wall of her of pioneering black congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, maps of Minnesota, and so on. And when we were ushered into a main kind of meeting room, which is pretty similar to what all members of Congress have, Omar's husband was there and there was an unexpected guest, her pet dog, Teddy. He's a Labrador retriever. So a cousin of a golden retriever. Who actually changed the atmosphere instead of this kind of very serious meeting a member of Congress.

6:03Here was this dog bounding around, panting away. He's more athletic. He wants to hunt. so we've struggled with his energy. But he's our family member now. We love him. When I was asking my first question, he was kind of leaping on my lap. I'm sure you kept your professional toys at all times. I tried. And so it was a family scene, the couple and their pet dog. So this isn't the first time that Trump has attacked Ilhan Omar, is it? Can you tell me about what he said before and what he's saying now? Trump, of course, rose to political prominence with attacks that were racially divisive. And in June 2015, as he came down that escalator to launch his presidential run, remember he talked about Mexicans as criminals and rapists.

6:53We have some bad hombres here and we're going to get them out. And he has certainly over the years targeted Ilhan Omar in a similar vein. For example, in 2019, he posted on Twitter that Omar and other members of the squad should, quote, go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came, close quote. President Trump doubled down, saying, I don't believe the four congresswomen are capable of loving our country. He called them weak and insecure people who can never destroy our great nation. And of course, he's talking about women of color, most of whom actually were born in the United States.

7:33In Omar's case, she was born in Somalia, but is a US citizen. She's a woman. She's black. She's an immigrant. It's a whole Trump checklist of how he likes to other and how he likes to demonise specific groups. How did she say it was affecting her? I would say Ilhan Omar herself was very calm and composed and showing grace under pressure. It is, I believe, a really unhealthy and creepy obsession that he has with me. Everybody knows I came to the United States at the age of 12 on a refugee status and became a citizen when I was 17. And obviously, I'm a duly elected member of Congress. And so my status is not in question in any kind of way.

8:23And yet, in terms of the content of what she said, she certainly noted the president's words do have direct consequences. During Trump's first term, when he was repeatedly attacking her, there was a huge escalation in death threats against her and she had to get a six-person security deployment. I ended up having the highest level of death threats for a member of Congress. us. Now, in the four years when Biden was president, my death threats went to almost zero. And now they are back up. And so there is a clear correlation between his presidency and the political violence that we see in the political danger that a lot of members of Congress and electeds feel across the country.

9:10Omar noted that early this year, a personal friend of hers, the former House Speaker in Minnesota and her husband were killed in their home. You know, my dear friend, Melissa Hortman, the former Speaker of the Minnesota House, was assassinated in her own home by somebody posing as a police officer. And so, you know, in many ways you think, like, where can we be safe? Where can we be safe? This is a very febrile atmosphere at the moment in Washington. and you sometimes see reports saying the number one issue for members of Congress is their own personal safety. But I also worry about those people finding someone who looks like me in Minneapolis or across the country and thinking it is me and harming them.

10:04So David, this threatening language towards Omar has come, as we've talked about, as part of these wider attacks on the broader Somali-American community, particularly in Minnesota. It feels a little bit like the eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings or something has turned onto this new target. Could you just give me a very brief overview of the size of that community and why this has become the object of Trump's concern? This is the biggest Somali community in the US. About 84 ,000 of the total 260 ,000 Somalis in the US live in the area of Minneapolis, St. Paul. The overwhelming majority of those are US citizens.

10:47Almost 58 % were born in the US. And 87 % of the foreign-born Somalis are naturalised citizens. This is a significant, often tightly knit community. But Ilhan Omar's husband was quick to point out that her district is very diverse. And it's not like she's representing solely Somali Americans. I think they're less than 10 % of her district. And can you tell me some of the things that Trump has been saying about this community? Well, he described them as garbage. We're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. And said they're of no use and they should basically leave the country.

11:29We don't want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.

11:37It's classic Trump rhetoric, aiming to demonize immigrants, people of color. I mean, one thing that I was struck by his remarks at this event in Pennsylvania last week was he talked about shithole countries. And I say, why is it we only take people from shithole countries, right? Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few. Let us have a few. From Denmark, do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people, do you mind? But we always take people from Somalia. And among other things, that was significant because for many years, Trump and the White House have always denied that he used the phrase shithole countries to describe African nations and Haiti.

12:25but now in his second term he feels liberated just to admit, well, actually, yes, he did say that and he's proud of it. I found it really startling to hear that kind of language coming from the most powerful man in the world. It was shocking. Did you also feel that kind of sense that this was a bit of a step change? Yes, I've been following Trump for a long time, all his first and second term, and yet, even after all those years, sometimes it still punches you in the gut and you recoil. What was also striking about it was this was meant to be an event about the economy and the cost of living and affordability.

13:04And yet, Trump could not resist the red meat for his base about immigration. And I think part of that is desperation, that he's very unpopular right now. And he's really losing the argument on affordability. So he's lashing out. It's always been a central thread that when you have economic grievances and things are not going well, look for someone to blame. And why turn his attention to this particular community? What's the background and context to him directing these attacks against Somali Americans in Minnesota? Well, I think what's also always been true of Trump is that there's often something in the news, something he can latch onto that gives him an opening for his opportunism.

13:49And in this instance, There has been serious, substantial fraud cases around social services in Minnesota. And an investigation by the New York Times has found that many of the people involved in that are of Somali origin and ancestry. Minnesota is reeling from a fraud scandal involving$1 billion siphoned from multiple federal programs during the COVID pandemic. In the past three years, 87 people have been charged, 61 convicted, most of Somali descent. Of course, Trump and the right-wing media are not going to miss an opportunity like that to try and scapegoat an entire community. And that's accelerated further because the governor of Minnesota on whose watch this happened is Tim Waltz.

14:39To his former high school football players, he was coach. who was the running mate to Kamala Harris in last year's presidential election. And in 91 days, the nation will know Coach Waltz by another name, Vice President of the United States. So it's also a great chance for them to bash Tim Waltz with this. You know, I started complaining about Somalia long before the scandal. the horrible things they're doing to Minnesota. It's incredible. They have an incompetent governor there too. The Democrats are running some bad ships. That is the context, I think, why Somali-Americans in Minnesota are feeling Trump's wrath.

15:30And there has been a lot of misinformation and falsehoods also around these fraud cases, such as I believe, you know, some of the money was directed to Al-Shabaab, like that idea that the communities within Minnesota were funding terrorism abroad. So it's kind of hitting all those main talking points, isn't it, as well? But what's the administration actually done since Trump launched those attacks? I haven't seen a great deal of concrete action. But since Trump returned to office, we've obviously had a tremendous crackdown on immigration. The Department of Homeland Security just the other day were boasting about, I think, two and a half million people leaving the country.

16:09Meanwhile, we're removing illegal aliens who came in under the Biden administration. By the end of this year, 2.5 million illegal aliens will have left our country. The majority actually self-deporting, as they put it. But I think it was well over half a million forcibly deported. And certainly already there's been huge pressure on the Somali community in Minnesota. Some very aggressive actions and raids.

16:43I think now there's fears that these fraud cases will be used as a pretext for ICE to really sort of go in all guns blazing. And is this part of the same playbook as well, like targeting Minnesota specifically and that kind of pattern of Trump launching attacks on Democratic strongholds like California, Chicago? Is this all part of that strategy as well? Yeah, I think that's a good point. What we've seen so far in Trump 2.0 is an even more intense attack on the so-called blue states. It works for him to set up these villains, these punchbags, to clash with the governors there. Yeah, I think that divisiveness is certainly part of the Trump playbook again here.

17:32Trump is saying that he's going to launch this intensive immigration operation in Minneapolis. Have you seen this play out already? Have you seen any evidence where people have been directly targeted? Yes, it's happening. And I asked Ilhan Omar about that. She said, we're seeing people being slammed to the ground, handcuffed, detained for hours. We are seeing people being told that their documents are not real. We are seeing people being tear gassed. I spoke to her last Friday, the following day, the Saturday, Ilhan Omar's own son was pulled over by ICE Immigration Customs and Enforcement. and fortunately he showed his ID and was let go.

18:22So I think there is concern that this could worsen. However, as was a theme in our conversation, she also said there is great resilience and readiness for this. You know, we are very strong and resilient community and we've survived a lot and we're certainly going to survive this president's threat. Coming up, are Trump's attacks on Somali-Americans a chilling step change for his administration?

19:04The Free Birth Society made millions selling a simple message to pregnant women. You don't need ultrasounds, doctors or midwives. You can free birth. But behind the scenes, terrible things were happening. I feel ashamed about this, but I didn't think that the deaths were bad until a year after I left. Subscribe to The Guardian Investigates feed to get all the episodes of The Birth Keepers. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Out now. So David, our colleague Rachel Lengang was in Minnesota last week to report on how all of this is affecting the community there. It seems like a lot of people are very afraid.

19:44I think we should never underestimate how much fear and intimidation there is in Trump's America right now. People are constantly living on edge. And is it safe to take my child to school? Is it safe to go to the shop? Is it safe to go to work? Masked officers with no identification can turn up and snatch people off the streets or at their workplace. It's not just what happens, but it's the ripple effects of all the anxiety and fear and intimidation that comes. Omar talks about, you know, they're ready and they're prepared and they're in touch with each other because no one quite knows how far extreme Trump and his aide Stephen Miller will go in these crackdowns.

20:29And is there something different here in the fact that the vast majority of this community are American citizens? Is that a step change that you are delegitimizing a group of American citizens here for the first time, really, in his Miller-led attack on immigration and immigrant communities. I agree. I think that's important. And we only have to look at the attack on Ilhan Omar herself to see the playbook there, where she has been a US citizen 25 years now, but it absolutely does not stop him suggesting that she's somehow illegitimate, she should be booted out of the country. It's another dangerous sign of authoritarianism and the mission creep of that.

21:13First, undocumented immigrants are targeted, and then the distinctions are blurred, and having citizenship is no longer seen as any guarantee. Just in the last few days, there were naturalisation ceremonies for new citizens, and at the very last minute, certain people were turned away and said, you might have an invitation to the ceremony, but sorry, you can't come anymore because fresh checks are required for people from certain countries. and with Trump having begun his term with an attack on birthright citizenship, it's a dangerous new phase of what actually constitutes an American. Yeah, and very chilling and very kind of open as well, isn't it?

21:58There's no attempt to hide this agenda. And what has been the reaction from the Somali community there? You said, obviously, Ilhan Omar was saying that everyone's keeping in touch, that there's this kind of effort to resist and to come together. Has there been any pushback against what's been happening? Certainly some criticism of Trump and what is happening, obviously, but also some efforts to lie low and not alert the authorities. And I hope that time will heal this, but particularly that we are less than a year away from midterm elections. there are many political signs that Donald Trump is in trouble, that Democrats may well do well in those elections.

22:43And if, for example, Democrats are in control of the House of Representatives, then they have ways to check the Trump agenda to some degree. You know, I think for many people in that community, it's a case of just try and wait for the storm to pass. It probably will move on based on what we've seen over the past 10 years of Trumpism. He's always looking for the next shiny object and does not have a great attention span. But nevertheless, for Somali Americans and immigrants all over the country, it's a very disturbing, worrying time because political violence continues to be on the rise. Yeah. Well, David, thank you so much for talking to us today.

23:27Great to be here. Thank you. And that's it for today. My thanks to David Smith. You can read all of his reporting from the United States at theguardian.com. This episode was presented by me, Annie Kelly, and produced by Ned Carter-Miles and Tom Glasser. Sound design was by Brian McNamara, and the executive producer was Huma Khalili. Before we go, I also want to tell you about our new series, The Birth Keepers. It's a six-part investigation by Shirin Kale and Lucy Osborne, which reveals how two influencers made millions, radicalising pregnant women around the world and the trail of tragedies that followed.

24:10All episodes are available now and you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.

24:21This is The Guardian.