President Donald Trump's tirade against Somalis prompts muted criticism on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s recent string of attacks on Somali immigrants — describing them as "garbage" and unwanted in the United States — has been met with muted pushback on Capitol Hill, where similar remarks in his first term were met with louder bipartisan rebukes.

Trump, at a Cabinet meeting last week and at a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, unleashed a series of insults at the Somali community and Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a vocal Trump critic.

"We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country," Trump said at a Dec. 2 Cabinet meeting. "She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren’t people who work. These aren’t people who say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great.’"

At the Mount Pocono rally, what was meant to be a speech focused on the economy veered to Trump repeatedly calling for Omar’s removal from the country. She arrived to the United States as a refugee at the age of 12. Trump also expressed a preference for accepting immigrants from Nordic countries over those from Somalia.

"Why can’t we have some people from Norway? Sweden? Just a few. Let us have a few. From Denmark ... send us some nice people. But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime. The only thing they’re good at is going after ships," he said.

Trump has ratcheted up his attacks on the Somali diaspora after a recent New York Times report detailed how dozens of Somali Americans who owned small businesses in Minnesota defrauded the state out of hundreds of millions of dollars over the past five years by billing the state for social service programs that were never provided.

Omar, whose Minnesota district represents the largest enclave of Somali Americans in the country, has argued in interviews that those arrested for the fraud do not represent the entire community of refugees who fled famine and war starting in the early 1990s.

 "This also has an impact on Somalis, because we are also taxpayers in Minnesota," Omar said during an appearance on CBS’s "Face the Nation" last Sunday. "We also could have benefited from the program and the money that was stolen."

Last year, 363 Somali refugees resettled to New York, according to the latest available state data. Nationwide, there are roughly 260,000 people of Somali descent living in the United States, according to the U.S. Census’ most recent American Community Survey.

LI delegation reacts

Asked about Trump’s remarks, Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) told Newsday in a statement: "These kinds of mean-spirited insults are unpresidential, and heighten the environment of division we see too much of in society today."

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) described the comments as wrong, but also chided former President Joe Biden for using the term "garbage" last October when criticizing a Trump campaign rally.

Biden at the time was criticizing Trump for allowing a comedian at his Madison Square Garden campaign rally to refer to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage." Biden praised Puerto Ricans and said "the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American."

The comment prompted swift backlash from the Trump campaign, but the White House argued Biden was referring solely to the comedian, not Trump’s base.

LaLota in a statement to Newsday said: "Calling people ‘garbage’ was wrong when former President Biden did it to Trump supporters, and it is wrong now. Somalis who are here legally, follow the law, and contribute to their communities deserve respect, while those here illegally — especially violent criminals or those abusing taxpayer programs — should be deported immediately."

Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) in a statement said: "We need to bring down the political temperature and discuss issues with more civility."

Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) did not respond to a request for comment.

'Expressing his frustration'

During Trump’s first term, several congressional Republicans defended Omar when Trump’s supporters broke out in chants of "send her back" during a 2019 campaign rally. Sen. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) at the time said there was "no place" for such rhetoric, but pressed by a Minnesota Star Tribune reporter this week about Trump’s latest remarks, Emmer repeatedly avoided the question.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), asked by a CNN reporter about Trump’s remarks on Wednesday, defended his tone, saying Trump was "expressing his frustration about the extraordinary challenge that is presented to America when you have people coming in, not assimilating, and trying to take over the country."

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.