Ilhan Omar Responds to Trump’s Comments on the Constitution

Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) reacted strongly after President Donald Trump questioned her grasp of the Constitution. Their ongoing conflict has reignited recently, particularly after Trump suggested she should go back to Somalia. This came on the heels of a White House post showing Trump waving goodbye through a McDonald’s drive-thru in 2024, alongside a video where Omar expressed no fear of deportation.

On Tuesday, Omar fired back, pointing out what she sees as Trump’s lack of constitutional knowledge. “Unlike you, I can read and I know what the Constitution says,” she stated in a post on X.

Trump, though not directly naming Omar, criticized her for her remarks against other Democrats in an interview with Fox News. He made sweeping comments about Somalia, saying, “When you look at people from Somalia, they don’t have anything, they don’t have police, they don’t have military, they don’t have anything. All they have is crime.” He went on to mock Omar’s perspective on the Constitution.

In a video shared by the White House, Omar questioned the notion of her being stripped of citizenship and deported. “But I don’t understand why it’s such a scary threat,” she said, dismissing the idea. “I’m no longer an 8-year-old fleeing a war… they can live wherever they want.”

Although Trump has repeatedly suggested that Omar should go back to Somalia, he mentioned that the country didn’t want her back. “I met the head of Somalia, did you know? And I suggested that he might want to take her back. He said, ‘I don’t want her,'” Trump commented.

Omar has rejected Trump’s claims, branding him a “lying clown” and stating that no one should take him seriously. Her office did not respond immediately to requests for comment. In response to her remarks, White House press secretary Abigail Jackson simply stated, “President Trump is right.”

Omar’s family fled Somalia during the civil war in 1991, finding refuge in a camp in Kenya. They were granted asylum in the United States in 1995, later moving to Arlington, Virginia. Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000 and was elected to the Minnesota House in 2016, then to the U.S. House in 2018, making history as the first Somali-American woman in Congress.