Somalis and Somali Americans have rejected United States President Donald Trump’s characterisation of their community as “garbage” with a mixture of outrage and creative mockery that has lit up social media platforms.
The pushback this week came after Trump closed his final cabinet meeting of the year on Tuesday with a venomous attack on the Somali diaspora.
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He reserved particular ire for the large Somali community in Minnesota and one of the Congress members who represents the area, US Representative Ilhan Omar, a former child refugee.
“We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. Her friends are garbage,” Trump told the meeting.
“ When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but b****, we don’t want them in our country.”
The remarks have drawn widespread condemnation from community leaders, Democratic lawmakers and civil rights organisations.
Minnesota state Senator Omar Fateh described the president’s comments as both “hurtful” and “disgraceful”.
“It was flat out wrong, calling not only our congresswoman garbage but calling the entire community garbage, saying they’re good for nothing,” Fateh told Al Jazeera.
“It is a community that has been resilient, that has produced so much. We are teachers and doctors and lawyers and even politicians taking part in every part of Minnesota’s economy and the nation’s economy.”
Fateh, who ran a campaign for city mayor this year, accused Trump of engaging in “political theatre” to energise his base ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Fears in the diaspora
Fateh also warned that the president’s rhetoric could fuel further political violence in Minnesota.
Already, in June, a gunman killed a Democratic state legislator and her husband in the state, and injured another lawmaker and his spouse.
The impact of Trump’s words was felt acutely in Minneapolis neighbourhoods where Somali businesses and families are concentrated.
Approximately 84,000 people of Somali descent live in the Minneapolis-St Paul metropolitan area, 58 percent of whom were born in the US.
Of those born abroad, the overwhelming majority — 87 percent — are naturalised American citizens, The Associated Press news agency reported. The area is considered to have one of the largest Somali diaspora communities in the world.
But Trump has signalled he plans to put pressure on Minneapolis, through immigration restrictions and deportation actions.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has already begun raids in the area this week, and as of Tuesday, the Trump administration has paused immigration applications from Somalia and 18 other countries.
“ I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” Trump said of Somalis on Tuesday.
Khadijo Warsame, who owns a cafe in Minneapolis, described an atmosphere of fear that has emptied the streets.
“It is deserted. Every business is closed, and it has been like this for the last three days,” she told Al Jazeera. “And we are really a small business. I’m scared that people [are] not showing up to buy from me, and I am like, I don’t want to close my business.”
Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, framed Trump’s targeting of lawful citizens as a betrayal of American values.
“What we see in Minneapolis is the authoritarian nature of this government acting as a third world nation by targeting lawful US citizens. We should be ashamed of that,” Hussein said.
Combatting racism with humour
Yet despite the fear, a defiant response has emerged on social media platforms, particularly TikTok and X.
Some users have created AI-generated images that insert Somalis into iconic images from US history, as a humorous way of illustrating their deep roots in the country.
Others have parodied Zionist claims to Palestine by joking that Minnesota was promised to them 3,000 years ago, a pointed reference to the logic used to justify Palestinian dispossession.
Mohammed Eid, a legal analyst at the Minnesota judiciary who moved to the US 11 years ago, expressed pride in the community’s response to the president’s attacks.
“I’m proud that our community stood up. Trump doesn’t have more rights than we do here. We’re all Americans. In fact, his wife, like many other people who move here, is also an immigrant,” Eid said.
“Many of these jokes Somalis are making online are showing how ridiculous some of the debates in our society are, from having [an] anti-immigration movement in a land where the natives were genocided to the situation in Gaza and Palestine.”
For Faisal Roble, a Somali American and former principal planner for the city of Los Angeles, the social media satire illustrated something distinctly American: an embrace of the First Amendment right to free speech.
“Young Somalis have hybrid identities and have utilised the American aspect of it to defend themselves, to build alliances, to mock people who are targeting and have shown skill and bravery despite the attacks,” Roble said.
“Somalis are a very visible community, who carry their culture with them and practise what America preaches. They live their lives and their values and participate.”
After racist attacks on social media, Somali Americans are parodying pro-Israel narratives – joking that Minnesota was promised to them “3,000 years ago.” pic.twitter.com/agSBdOr9cH
— AJ+ (@ajplus) December 2, 2025
Eyeing the election
Roble, however, speculates there could be political machinations behind Trump’s recent attack on the Somali community.
In November 2026, the US is slated to hold midterm elections, which will decide the composition of its Congress.
Currently, Republicans narrowly control both the House of Representatives and the Senate. But Roble said Trump could be using racist attacks to drum up his base of support, known as the “Make American Great Again” (MAGA) movement.
“This recent attack is straight out of the racist playbook,” Roble told Al Jazeera. “It is election season, and his MAGA base, which he’s appealing to, responds to this type of messaging.”
Roble added that many Somalis are Black and Muslim — “two identities some Americans remain uncomfortable with”.
Critics also see Trump’s attacks on Omar, the Congress member representing Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, as another effort to weaken the left’s presence in the House of Representatives.
All 435 seats in the House are up for grabs in the midterms, and currently, Republicans hold a thin 220-person majority in the chamber.
Trump has also had a longstanding feud with the progressive Omar, stretching back to his first term as president.
The president’s focus on Omar reflects his “total frustration with the fact that he cannot do anything about her”, according to Roble.
“She is a prominent critic,” Roble explained, and she carries her district by wide margins. In the 2024 election, for instance, Omar won with a commanding 74 percent of the vote, trouncing her Republican rival.
In a New York Times opinion column published Thursday, Omar noted that Trump’s attacks carry real consequences.
“When Mr Trump maligns me, it increases the number of death threats that my family, staff members and I receive,” she wrote.
But she maintained she too was committed to speaking out. “The president’s goal may have been to try to tear me down, but my community and my constituents rallied behind me then, just as they are now.”
International consequences
Trump’s comments this week have even sparked backlash across the world, in Somalia. Residents there have expressed anger and called upon their government to respond to the US president.
“This is intolerable,” said Mogadishu resident Abdisalan Ahmed.
“Trump insults Somali several times every day, calling us garbage and other derogatory names we can no longer tolerate. Our leaders should address his remarks.”
Nevertheless, Somalia’s government has largely maintained its diplomatic restraint.
Prime Minister Hamza Barre, for instance, urged calm in a statement, noting Trump had “insulted many countries, including Nigeria and South Africa”.
Barre suggested it was “better to ignore than to make his words look like an issue”.
Abukar Arman, a former US envoy to Somalia, told Al Jazeera it may be more strategic to avoid responding in kind to Trump’s remarks. Angering Trump, he explained, could have foreign policy consequences.
“Trump is a narcissist whose ego is as fragile as an egg shell. The more humiliated he feels, the more imbecilic his attacks would become,” Arman said.
But some politicians have taken a more aggressive approach. During Trump’s past attacks against Omar, Somali Defence Minister Moallim Fiqi has pushed back, saying: “If our daughter is being targeted because of her identity, we stand firmly by her side.”
Roble, meanwhile, placed the attacks on Somalis within Trump’s broader pattern of targeting communities of colour.
“Somalis are just the latest casualty,” he said, though he warned the damage may ultimately be felt in “the US government system and its relationship with its citizens”.