Trump is terrorizing Minnesota’s Somali Americans in a desperate xenophobic and racist appeal to voters in the state’s white farming and mining communities.
On the morning of October 12, 2026, federal agents from Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security raided the Washington, D.C., home of Minnesota’s Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar, a Somali American who represents the state’s Fifth District. She has not been charged with a crime but according to sources her phone was seized and possible charges include conspiracy and making false statements in immigration paperwork. It is also reported that one dozen subpoenas have been issued. Trump followed up with one of his most deranged Somali-hating rants yet at a Youngstown, Ohio rally for Republican Senate candidate Jon Husted:
I call it [Minnesota] Somalia land, not Somaliland, because actually it’s a totally different country. Some people like Somaliland, but it has nothing to do, you know that has nothing to do. I said, you got to be kidding. I think they should change the name immediately. But they like to, they think they’re in Somalia where they don’t have pants to wear. They come here. They go in BMWs and Mercedes, and they like that. Somalia, they like that. They love Mercedes. They come in, they have nothing and they’re the number one buyers of Mercedes and BMWs in the State of Minnesota.
The whole thing is crazy. It’s crazy. Low IQ people. If you wanta stop Ohio from being destroyed like Minnesota’s being destroyed, we’re gonna stop it.
The Fifth District represented by Ilhan Omar, covers most of the City of Minneapolis and has the highest concentration of Somali Americans in any district in the country, but they are still only 3%, 22,000 people out of a total population of 705,000. Immigrants make up thirteen to 14% of the district’s total population, making it the most diverse in the state.
Minnesota is home to an estimated 108,000 residents of Somali descent, representing the largest Somali American population in the United States, but still only 2% of the state’s 5.86 million residents.
I spoke to Somali American Jamal Abdulahi, a software engineer and business owner who has been involved in Minnesota politics for many years with the Democratic-Farmer-Labor-Party, about Trump’s latest over-the-top attacks on his community. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor-Party is the Democratic Party in Minnesota.
ANN GARRISON: Jamal, you’ve told me before that you saw this attack on Ilhan Omar coming close to the election, which is now only 21 days away. What do you think Trump is trying to accomplish, not only with that but with these wild rants about Somalis taking over the State of Minnesota, including all the BMWs and Mercedes.
JAMAL ABDULAHI: Trump is simply trying to mobilize his MAGA base and get them to the polls on November 3rd. He has been cultivating Somalis as a political boogeyman for many years, but Somalis and their political allies, including the Democratic Farmer Labor Party, have yet to offer an effective alternative message.
Trump told the world that he was going to terrorize Somalis in Minnesota in February 2026 with selective targeting detailed in an article in the Washington Post. That article describes how John Hurley, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Intelligence, resigned after he refused to implement a Geographical Targeting Order (GTO) from Trump specifically intended to target Somalis in Minnesota. In that order, Trump demanded that more Somalis be arrested, and that their businesses and organizations be closed.
In that order, Trump also detailed how he wanted the Treasury Department and other federal government agents to find evidence of wrongdoing by Somalis.
AG: I missed that article in February but read it after you brought it to my attention and it’s quite something. It shouldn’t surprise, given all the rest of Trump’s aggressive, in-your-face racism, but I couldn’t help being shocked that he was ordering the Treasury Department to go after a specific immigrant community just to terrorize them.
JA: It’s not just the Treasury Department. It’s also the Department of Justice, the FBI, the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives), and of course ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). ICE most of all.
AG: I’ve got that Washington Post report here It says, “His [Hurley’s] departure underscores how some Trump allies in the federal government are uneasy with the extent of White House directives to deploy law enforcement tools against Minneapolis’s Somali community. Two of the people said he raised data privacy concerns over the plans in question.”
JA: The goal is to simply deflect blame from failures of Trump’s policies most of all tariffs and the Iran war, which economically devastated farming and mining communities in Minnesota’s 1st, 7th and 8th Congressional districts. All three of those seats are currently held by the GOP but were held by Democrats at some points in the past, and polls show Democrats gaining ground in all of them.
Polls also show GOP candidates lagging in statewide races including that for governor and that for the open US Senate seat, one of a handful that could tip the balance in the Senate. Just a few days ago Politico reported that Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a Democrat and a Native American, leads her GOP opponent, former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, by four points in the polls but within the margin of error.
Trump has successfully reduced the November 3rd elections to a contest between his disastrous economic policies and his “Somali fraud” narrative. The question is which one voters are more enraged about.
Again, although they’re gaining ground, Somalis and their democratic allies have not crafted any forceful, effective messaging in response. They should have seen this coming when that February Washington Post article was published. They should have been aware and come out swinging.
AG: Trump couldn’t have made himself an easier target. Every day we hear more about how he’s turned the federal government into a cash machine for his family and friends. That’s all abundantly evidenced, while he’s screaming incoherently that low IQ Somalis came here with nothing and now they have all the BMWs and Mercedes in Minnesota.
JA: That’s right, and federal agencies are likely to raid more Somali businesses and indict more Somalis as election day on November 3rd approaches, all for Trump to solidify his campaign of terror and deflect from his policy failures. Somalis and the Democratic Party should be prepared for that.
AG: How is this affecting the Somali American community, not only in Minneapolis but elsewhere in the State?
JA: The effect is obviously fear and economic turmoil.
Unfortunately, the state caved to pressure and terminated many Somali vendors in the Medicaid and Medicare programs after bogus fraud allegations from the Center for Medicaid and Medicare.
Minneapolis has several prominent Somali malls and cultural marketplaces, where heavily armed, masked ICE gunmen have been trolling and raiding Somali businesses, leading many of them to close. The Department of Transportation(DOT) has also forced many in the long hauling transportation of goods to close with targeted, discriminatory policies.
Somalis who are still able to eke out a living have been prevented from sending money back to relatives outside the United States. And that’s money that many of those relatives depend on to survive.
Banks have been ordered to demand additional documentation from any Somalis transmitting or withdrawing more than $3,000.
The economic effect of Trump’s targeting of Somalis has been more devastating in Minnesota than anywhere else in the US.
AG: What was the Feeding the Future scandal and how has Trump used that in his attacks?
JA: Feeding the Future was the name of a non-profit that stole federal pandemic relief funds meant to feed children. Yes, that was a horrible crime and Somalis were involved, but a white woman, Amy Bock, was the Founder and Executive Director of Feeding the Future. She is now serving 41 years in prison, but Trump doesn’t talk about her.
Instead he blames it all on Somalis and he has milked that scandal for all he could get, blowing the figure up from $250 million to $19 billion, then repeating it over and over to deflect blame from all the damage done by his tariffs and his war on Iran. The price of fertilizer and the price of gas are both soaring in the farming communities and Trump tells the voters there that they’re suffering because Somalis stole $19 billion from the state.
AG: And how are Somali Americans fighting back?
JA: Not very well or effectively. Again, Somalis have not been able to find a consistent message or effective messenger to counter Trump’s demonization and political terror.
AG: Immigrants who have not yet secured legal residency status are probably particularly frightened and endangered no? Is your community taking action to protect them?
JA: The number of Somalis without legal status is very small and falls into categories. Those with Temporary Protection Order(TPS) and recent arrivals seeking asylum. Trump canceled TPS and pressured the Justice Department(DOJ) to expedite immigration deportation procedures. With the exception of a few who have gone into hiding, most of these recent immigrants have already been deported.
But I want to emphasize that these two groups are very small, something in the order of several thousand individuals.
The overwhelming majority of Somalis in America are legal with green cards, naturalized or native born American citizens.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s immigration gulag chief, admitted to FOX News that there is not much Trump can do about Somalis in the legal realm. But Trump “can change Somalis political posture” with economic pressure.
AG: How are Somalis in Somalia and other parts of the diaspora reacting to Trump’s madness?
JA: With anger, dismay and despair. But Somalis are resilient and expect Trump’s campaign of political terror to pass.
Elections in America are binary. After November 3rd, 2026, either Trump will have more power or less.
If the GOP loses control of the house or senate or both, Somalis expect Trump’s terror campaign against them to end.
If the GOP maintains control of the house and senate, Somalis expect Trump to achieve his political goal and move on to pick a fight with another group or at least cool off until the next election cycle.
AG: Thanks much, as always, Jamal. Black Agenda Report is fortunate to have access to all your knowledge of experience of the Horn of Africa and the Somali community here.
JA: Happy to do it.
Ann Garrison is a Black Agenda Report Contributing Editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region. She can be reached at ann@anngarrison.com. You can help support her work on Patreon.
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