On the road in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, President Donald Trump tried to emphasize his focus on combating inflation, yet the issue that has damaged his popularity couldn't quite command his full attention.
After calling the term “affordability” a “hoax” to hurt his reputation, Mr. Trump then veered into immigration once again, and objected to taking immigrants from “hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and many other countries." He added for emphasis that those places “are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”
His rambling diatribe about immigrants and his disdain for them then took a turn into Minnesota where he took swipes at Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (DF) and Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D).
"I love this Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is, with the little, the little turban," Trump said. "I love her. She comes in, does nothing but bitch. She's always complaining."
The president also falsely claimed Omar married in order to become a citizen.
"I love it. She comes to our country and she's always complaining about, 'the Constitution allows me to do this, the constitution.' We ought to get her the hell out," Trump told the crowd. "She married her brother in order to get in, right? She married her brother."
Omar actually became a U.S. citizen at the age of 17. She was not married. The allegation led the assembled crowd to chant "send her back".
Mr. Trump also asked the crowd why it was that the United States couldn't bring in more people from Scandanavia instead and mocked mock Omar for wearing her hijab. Omar is the first Somali American in the United States Congress and the first woman of color to represent Minnesota.
Omar's family secured asylum in the U.S. and arrived in New York in 1995 when she was 13-years old. Her family lived for a time in Arlington, Virginia, before moving to and settling in Minneapolis.
Responding on social media, Omar again claimed Trump is "obsessed" with her.
"Trump’s obsession with me is beyond weird. He needs serious help," Omar wrote. "Since he has no economic policies to tout, he’s resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead. He continues to be a national embarrassment."
Trump also took aim at Somali people living in Minnesota as federal agents have been in the city checking ID's of people including Tuesday night, where they went into several East African restaurants. Nobody was arrested and everyone checked was a U.S. citizen.
Trump's comments once again tied them to fraud cases within the state where some - not all - connected to Feeding Our Future and fraud within other state programs were Somali. Dozens have already been prosecuted, and most that have been sentenced.
"Those people should go to jail. Jail! And if they don't go to jail, Scott Bessent is toast," Trump said about his Sec. of the Treasury. "These people are crooks. They don't work. 91% unemployment, okay? It's a scam. And it's headed up by the crooked congresswoman. What ever happened to her brother, by the way?"
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz didn't escape unscathed either, with Mr. Trump saying he was "one of the dumbest" state leaders in the country.
Tuesday’s gathering in the swing state — and in a competitive House district — was an official White House event, yet it seemed more like one of his signature campaign rallies that his chief of staff said he would hold regularly ahead of next year’s midterms. But instead of being in an arena that could draw several thousand attendees, it was held in a conference center ballroom at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, a small town of about 3,000 residents.