Donald Trump has recently made a series of highly negative and inflammatory remarks about Somalia and Somali immigrants, describing Somalia as a failed or “rotten” country and saying he does not want Somali immigrants in the United States. He has repeatedly linked Somalis to crime, welfare dependence, and terrorism and called for sending Somalis “back” to their country and for sharply restricting immigration from Somalia.

Main points of what he said

• He said Somalia “has nothing,” is in chaos, and that people there “just run around killing each other,” presenting the country as one of the worst in the world.

• He claimed Somali immigrants “offer nothing,” are heavily dependent on welfare, and “contribute nothing,” using these claims to argue that he does not want Somalis in the U.S.

• He stated that Somalis in the U.S. should “go back to where they came from and fix” Somalia, tying this to broader promises to end protections and migration from Somalia and similar countries.

Comments about Minnesota and Ilhan Omar

• Trump has focused many of his Somalia‑related comments on Minnesota, saying Somali immigrants have “ruined” or “destroyed” Minnesota and turned it into a “hellhole.”

• He has repeatedly attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali‑born congresswoman from Minnesota, calling her and her allies “garbage” and saying she should be removed from Congress or even expelled from the country.

• In social media and speeches, he has used Somalia’s real problems—poverty, conflict, terrorism, corruption—to argue that people from there should not be telling Americans “how to run” the U.S.

Policy-related statements

• Alongside this rhetoric, Trump has talked about ending or rolling back special legal protections for Somalis in the U.S., including temporary protections from deportation that have applied since Somalia’s state collapse in the early 1990s.

• He has paired attacks on Somalia with broader pledges to freeze or sharply restrict asylum and immigration from “Third World countries,” and to deport immigrants he labels as not contributing or “non‑compatible with Western civilization.”

These statements have been widely criticized as xenophobic and racist, especially by Somali communities, Minnesota leaders, and Somali officials, who stress Somalia’s partnership with the U.S. and the contributions of Somali Americans.