Omar’s Response to Deportation Speculation
The White House seems to anticipate Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) returning to Somalia, her birthplace. On Monday, an image of President Donald Trump waving goodbye from a McDonald’s drive-thru in 2024 was shared, apparently as a reaction to a video where Omar expressed indifference about potential deportation.
“Don’t worry. I don’t know how they’re going to strip me of my citizenship and deport me,” Omar stated in a video originally made for the Dean Obeidallah Show last October. She questioned why the prospect of her deportation is viewed as a threat, saying, “I’m no longer an 8-year-old fleeing a war. I’ve grown up, and my children have grown up. They can live wherever they want.”
Omar’s office did not immediately respond to inquiries from news outlets. The image of Trump, working at a McDonald’s fry station in Pennsylvania during his campaign in October 2024, was also released by the White House.
Back in 1991, during the civil war in Somalia, Omar’s family escaped to a refugee camp in Kenya. Later, they received asylum in the United States, moving to Arlington, Virginia, in 1995, then on to Minneapolis in 1997. Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000.
Recently, Trump suggested that Omar should go back to Somalia, posting on Truth Social, “She should go back!” This was accompanied by a video of her speaking Somali. Additionally, Trump commented in September that Somalia had no interest in her return.
He mentioned meeting the Somali president and suggested he might want to take her back, quoting the president’s response: “I don’t want her.”
Omar dismissed the claim, asserting the story was fabricated and questioning Trump’s credibility. “From denying that Somalia never had a president to making this up, President Trump is a lying clown,” she remarked, criticizing him and urging that no one should take him seriously.
This back-and-forth isn’t new. Trump has frequently clashed with Omar since his first term, at times suggesting she and others from the “Squad” should return to what he describes as a “broken, crime-infested” country.
In a 2019 social media post, Omar accused Trump of “inciting white nationalism” and expressed frustration about his reaction to her presence in Congress as she and others work against “hateful policies.”
Omar was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 after serving two years in the Minnesota House. She stands out as the first Somali-American woman and one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress.
