President Trump repeatedly referenced Minnesota and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on Monday night during a campaign appearance in Youngstown, Ohio, stumping for Republicans ahead of the midterms. Federal agents searched the home of Omar, a Somali-born American citizen, on Monday as part of a federal criminal investigation into Omar. In Youngstown Trump said, “Just look at what’s happening in the once great state of Minnesota. What a mess they have done,” and added of Omar that “she’s a disaster.”
Trump said Omar comes from “one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet.” The crowd chanted “deport” as he discussed Somalis in the United States. He also said, “They came over here. They had nothing. They came from a government that doesn’t exist,” and that they come from a part of the world that only knows how to kill each other.
He referenced a massive pandemic-era fraud scheme in Minnesota that involved some of the state’s Somali community, in which hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen from a federally funded nutrition program. Trump accused Democrats in Minnesota of cheating in elections, saying he thought he won the state in 2024 before “a rather large drop of votes” appeared. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris won Minnesota in 2024, and Trump said, “They cheat like hell. Aside from everything else, they cheat on the elections.”
Earlier Monday Trump called Omar “totally crooked” when asked about the search, telling reporters before leaving the White House for Ohio that “I’ve always found her to be totally crooked personally, but that has nothing to do with me” and that “that’s really up to the DOJ.” Last week Trump wrote on Truth Social that Minnesotans should “fight back” against Somali immigrants, saying the state was being taken over and citing violence. Minnesota has the largest population of Somalis in the U.S. at 1.07 percent, according to World Population Review, with most arriving as refugees after a civil war in the country in the 90s, like Omar and her family.