President Donald Trump is again lashing out against Minnesota's Somali population, this time during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. The meeting mainly focused on the war in Iran, but then Minnesota's Somalis came up.
"They come to our country, low IQs, and they rob us blind," Mr. Trump said to reporters in the room. "Stupid people, and they rob us blind because we have crooked politicians and we have dirty cops. The Attorney General's a dirty cop. It's my opinion. It's only my opinion, and something should be done about him."
The president was referring to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who has been critical of the president in the past.
On his personal X account, Ellison responded to the video of Mr. Trump's comments.
"If Donald Trump thinks Minnesotans will turn on our neighbors, he doesn’t understand this state," wrote Ellison. "When he surged ICE here and killed two Minnesotans, we stood up for each other, not against each other. Trump’s racist tirades can’t distract from the fact that his reckless and deeply unpopular war is driving up inflation, raising gas prices, and making life unaffordable for Minnesotans. Here’s the truth: while Trump desperately protects the Epstein class and pardons outrageous fraudsters, I’ve been prosecuting and convicting them."
Earlier this week, a lawsuit was filed against the federal government over Somali asylum seekers who have had their hearings fast-tracked to the point that attorneys say they've had no time to prepare cases. The Trump Administration in January revoked the legal status of several thousand immigrants from Somalia, raising the specter of deportation for a community often assailed by the president.
Trump: "In Minnesota, it's very Somalia-oriented. These people come from a crooked country, disgusting country, one of the worst countries in the world. They come to our country -- low IQs -- and they rob us blind. Stupid people, and they rob us blind." pic.twitter.com/2TRhf2gAMn
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 26, 2026
Trump has repeatedly attacked Somalis living in Minnesota
Late in 2025, Trump labeled Minnesota Somalis as “garbage” as “garbage” and said he didn’t want them in the U.S.
Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the U.S. About 84,000 of the 260,000 Somalis in the U.S. live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The overwhelming majority are American citizens. Almost 58% were born in the U.S and 87% of the foreign-born are naturalized citizens.
President Donald Trump has linked his administration’s immigration crackdown against Minnesota’s large Somali community to a series of fraud cases involving government programs in which many defendants have roots in the east African country.
More than 90% of the people charged in Minnesota's three largest fraud cases are of Somali descent for a total of 86, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.
That includes 72 of the 78 defendants in Feeding Our Future, though the alleged ringleader was a white American woman. Six of the eight defendants in the housing case are Somali, as is the one defendant who was charged in both the autism case and food fraud cases.
Minnesota’s most prominent Somali American, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, said on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” in December that it’s unfair to blame the entire community for the actions of a relative few. She said most are angry about the fraud.
“This also has an impact on Somalis, because we are also taxpayers in Minnesota,” Omar said. “We also could have benefited from the program and the money that was stolen.”
Omar accused Trump of “an unhealthy obsession” on the community and on her personally.
“I think it is also really important for us to remember that this kind of hateful rhetoric and this level of dehumanizing can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president,” she said.
