President Donald Trump, in an interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns, accused Minnesota Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar of marrying his brother.
Omar has faced questions about potential immigration fraud ever since she joined Congress in 2018. In 2019, the Minneapolis Star Tribune raised concerns regarding inconsistencies about her marital status. During his presidency, Trump criticized Omar for her opposition to an ICE operation targeting undocumented immigrants from Somalia. This operation followed revelations of significant welfare fraud supposedly benefiting the terrorist group al-Shabaab.
In his remarks, Trump stated, “I want to see people who contribute. I don’t want to see Somalia. I don’t want to see a woman marry her brother, become a member of parliament, and complain all the time.”
On a recent episode of “Face the Nation,” Omar noted that Somalis in Minnesota were also victims of welfare fraud schemes.
Trump continued, “All she does is complain, complain, complain, and yet her country is a mess. It’s the worst country in the world. Let her come back and rebuild her country. So, no, Somalia, and I was right.” He also indicated that he had been voicing concerns about Somalia long before the scandal, criticizing Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz as incompetent.
Omar married Ahmed Elmi in a civil ceremony in Minnesota in 2009, after having wed Ahmed Abdisaran Hirsi in an Islamic ceremony seven years earlier. According to a timeline, Omar asserted she separated from Elmi in 2011 and had her third child with Hirsi in 2012; however, her divorce from Elmi did not finalize until 2017.
She later married Hirsi in a civil marriage in 2018, divorced him in 2019, and then began an affair with a Democratic consultant, Tim Mynett.
On November 22, President Trump announced the withdrawal of the “temporary protected status” for Somalis in Minneapolis, attributing this decision to the allegations and asserting that the influx of refugees had “destroyed our country.”
