President Donald Trump delivered scathing remarks on Tuesday in a personal and vicious diatribe against U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, as well as immigrants from Somalia and other foreign countries.
“I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you, okay? Somebody will say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country,” said Trump during a Cabinet meeting, answering a question about a recent report about fraud committed by Somali immigrants in Minnesota.
“Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don’t want them in our country. I could say that about other countries, too,” he said.
Trump and the White House have escalated their rhetoric on immigrants living in the U.S. after an Afghan migrant shot two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., last week. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that the shooting showed “that it is more important than ever to finish carrying out the president’s mass deportation operation.”
On Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. was at a “tipping point” and that the country needs to “rebuild.”
“We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” he asserted.
The president then called out Congresswoman Omar, a Somali immigrant who came to the U.S. as a child refugee.
“Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage,” said Trump. “These aren’t people that say, let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great. These are people that do nothing but complain. They complain, and from where they came from, they got nothing.”
Trump has repeatedly targeted Omar and other Democrats like Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, whom he constantly referred to as “low IQ,” despite Crockett graduating from law school and previously working as a civil rights attorney.
Trump said of immigrants in the U.S., “They said this isn’t paradise. But when they come from hell, and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”
Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright slammed the president’s remarks, telling theGrio, “Bigotry and hate are a drug that Trump is not only addicted to, but one he depends on for emotional satisfaction.” He added, “He’s built the MAGA movement based on racism and bigotry.”
Ultimately, Seawright, who advises national Democrats, including the U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Assistant Democratic Leader Joe Neguse, said Trump’s attacks on Black and Brown lawmakers, particularly women, are a way to “throw a ball of distraction down America’s plate.”
“Maganomics continues to be a failure, and Trump’s economy continues to be inferior,” he told theGrio. “Donald Trump usually turns to these tactics and strategies, not only out of desperation, but when he wants MAGA participation.”
