By Faisa Ahmed
I am an American and a member of the Minnesota Somali community.
President Donald Trump called me and my 221,000 fellow Somali Americans “garbage.” The secretary of defense, who is Minnesota born, eagerly and immediately endorsed the “garbage” remark and Trump’s conclusion that we are unwanted in this country and should be sent away.
The secretary of state, the vice president and the rest of the cabinet cheered and banged on the table and applauded this hateful and profoundly ignorant assault on my community.
Profoundly ignorant and profoundly ironic — because the Somali community I know is everything that conservatives and Republicans claim to want in America.
We are people of deep and unwavering faith. We pray five times a day, no matter where we are, no matter who’s looking.
We are generous people who give freely and without hesitation to our neighbors, regardless of where they’re from or who they vote for.
We are so damn funny. We love so deeply. We proudly live our values. We do not cower.
We are as American as apple pie and as Minnesotan as ranch dressing, and we have invested in our communities, our state and our nation.
We are among the doctors and nurses who led our state through the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are among the small business owners who make our communities great places to live and make a living.
We are among the students preparing to help Minnesota thrive for another generation.
Yet despite all that, just ask any Somali person in your life if the president’s hateful attacks came as a shock to them, and they’ll tell you “no.”
This year, right-wing influencers and YouTubers showed up in our communities to make videos about “Little Mogadishu.” These videos, meant only to dehumanize us and incite violence and hatred against us, pulled millions of views. Right-wing trolls spread bizarre, disgusting conspiracies about our genetics and our IQ levels.
They questioned U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s loyalty to America and called for her to be denaturalized and deported. They came up with one wildly racist and false smear campaign after another against Senator Omar Fateh—demonizing him, darkening his image, and weaponizing similar rhetoric we are seeing today.
Hateful, Proud Boy-esque vandalism has spread across our communities, calling for us to be deported and leaving threats on Somali candidates’ campaign offices.
And that’s just this year.
So no, it is not surprising that our president — needing a distraction from rising prices, broken campaign promises and a crumbling coalition — hopped on the bandwagon to scapegoat our community. It is sad that the president is choosing racism and fearmongering rather than simply doing the job he was elected to do, but sadder still that, given the state of our society and country, this is what the vast majority of us expected.
Trump will always be on the lookout for the next fearmongering sideshow to distract and divide us from the harm that his administration is inflicting. But he will learn a hard lesson about the communities he perceives to be weak. The Minnesota Somali community, like others he has chosen to bully and attack, is full of tough leaders who have been facing scary, hateful people for their whole careers and probably still will be, long after Trump has once again faded into memory.
Unfortunately, in the immediate term, the full weight of the federal government is barreling down on my community. Families are being separated. People are making contingency plans in anticipation of the unthinkable and unacceptable. I would never wish upon anyone to have to tell their parents, who have been citizens for nearly 30 years, what documents to carry, how to move, what to be ready for, in the very country they call home. But that is my reality now. That is our reality now.
So please continue telling the stories of the impact the Somali American community has had on you and your loved ones; support our businesses; donate to the boots-on-the-ground organizations that are helping the community. If you do nothing else, please shut down this dehumanizing rhetoric everywhere you hear it — from family, friends, strangers on social media, anywhere you see it. It is on all of us to do our part in stopping this cycle of dehumanization of immigrant communities.
To my Somali brothers and sisters. “Iskaashato Ma Kufto.” If we lean on each other, we won’t fall. We did not survive civil war, famine and exile just to be intimidated into silence. We have left behind and buried too many, rebuilt too often, and prayed too many times through the darkest hours, to let this break us.
Minnesota is our home. America is our home. And our community will not be pushed out.
Learn more about your rights when interacting with ICE & federal law enforcement.
Faisa Ahmed is a second-generation Somali Minnesotan, communicator and organizer who has worked on electoral and issue-based campaigns across Minnesota. This article was originally produced by Minnesota Reformer, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Florida Phoenix, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Bo Peep says
It was a good call
Pierre Tristam says
FCC environmental must’ve missed this garbage pickup.
Anonymous says
Not wrong. Look what Biden and Hillary called people, so go.cry elsewhere.
Tired of it says
What exactly are you referring to? Be specific. I don’t recall any Democrat ever referring to anyone as garbage. Nor do I recall any president ever insulting women reporters when they couldn’t answer their questions. Nor do i recall any president posting daily insulting, vulgar rants full of lies and misinformation.. The highest office in the land has been demeaned and dishonored by trump’s behavior. Shame on him and those, like you, who find this acceptable.
DeSantisRocks says
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables” – HRC
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters his-his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.” – Joe Biden
Want more? And btw, Trump is right.
Kat says
I am sorry for the hateful, ignorant comments, there are good and bad in every subgroup of human. I endeavor to be on the good end of whatever subgroup I am in and call out the bad when I see it. Your essay was very well written, and I am sharing on social media. I support your message.
Sherry says
What in the hell is wrong with you people commenting here? Have you completely lost your sense of decency? Calling any group of humans “Garbage” is absolutely despicable, and should be “beneath” any civilized human being! Saying that spreading such “hate and racism” is OK because somebody else said something you didn’t like is ignorant and infantile. How can you sleep at night with such vile thoughts on your mind?
Skibum says
Thank you, Sherry.
Kennan says
Thank you Sherry!!!
Some of these commenters know exactly who they are, or what they are.
What a surprise trigger happy Bo Peep and Anonymous. (Perfect)
An alias for dirt peddling, White Nationalist, Trump spewing talking points from folks that have no real thoughts of their own. The only point they will find is the one on top off their heads.
DeSantisRocks says
Really? Would you call Nazi’s garbage? What about serial killers? If so, then you do call some people garbage. And btw, Trump is right. They are fleecing our nation, and lefties are letting them do it. Tim Walz should be in prison, and they should all be deported.
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
How do you feel about pedophiles
Kennan says
Thank you Samuel!
Excellent and factual point. Saved us all time and effort dog walking these race baiters.
Sherry says
Thank you Samuel!
The same people that voted for a “twice impeached, convicted criminal and sexual abuser” for President are now spewing their hate filled, ignorant comments here! How horrific and despicable!
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
Interesting. I’m not a huge fan of those pedophiles either, and I think they should be in prison because they’re pedophiles. Are those the only ones you don’t like?
DeSantisRocks says
Clearly one is alluding to Trump. If it’s proven Trump was doing pedo things, then yes, I’d have a problem with him, as well as anyone else. So far, there is zero evidence of that and all testimony from witnesses also exonerate him.
Laurel says
Not exactly. If a person is best buddies for ten years with a sexual predator, who trafficked around 1,000 girls, he certainly knew what abusive business Epstein was pimping.
“Donald Trump once remarked that Jeffrey Epstein “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” highlighting their shared interest in younger women. This comment has drawn significant scrutiny in light of Epstein’s criminal activities involving underage girls.”
– Search Assist, Wikipedia, Raw Story
That makes Trump, who claims to know nothing whenever cornered, complicit. That also makes his supporters, who want to play denial, complicit as well. After running his campaign on releasing the Epstein files, he, interestingly enough, decided it was all a “Democratic hoax.”
How naive are you?
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
Odd that you brought up and then defended trump when I asked you about your feelings regarding other pedophiles. Why’d you do that? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way. I don’t personally care why you did it, but I do find it interesting that the fans of either side go to bat like this for their preferred candidate. It says a lot about the kind of person that someone is when they’re willing to overlook substantial ethically or morally black things because they’re afraid their team will lose.
DeSantisRocks says
Stop being disingenuous. You know full well what you were doing and it’s not even clever. Until someone, anyone on either side, has actual admissions or it’s been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they engage in this behavior – yes they get a pass from me. The left is like a dog with a bone anytime they think they will finally get Trump, this time.
We got him this time boys! oh wait no
We got him this time boys! oh wait no
We got him this time boys! oh wait no
We got him this time boys! oh wait no
We got him this time boys! oh wait no
Laurel says
So why is the Trump admin not releasing the Epstein files, on time, as the law requires? After all, it was a campaign promise, which Trump had FBI employees pulled off their assignments to search the files for his name, which became a “Democratic hoax, which now is being illegally stalled…
Now, what’s the latest excuse? Christmas? Ho Ho Ho!
Greg says
My question is, why are you not working? Oh that’s right, American taxpayers support you.
Laurel says
Who told you that? Didn’t you read the article? Somolian Americans are business people who are American taxpayers.
Such a bizarre concept to hate people you never met.
DeSantisRocks says
88% are on welfare. What little taxes they pay don’t even cover the cost of public school for their children. Wake up. Typical lefty to find an outlier and try to fit everything else around that.
Laurel says
For starters, I’m a lifelong Independent, but enjoy your label on me. Categorizing seems to be your way. Easy way out, right?
You did not explain why you hate people you don’t know. You simply spit out a number without any factual backing. Why would you do that? Are you a kid?
DeSantisRocks says
All the left does is categorize everyone into oppressors and oppressed. They define levels of victimhood, and everything is systemic, so it’s not your fault. It’s not the right focused on identity politics. We’re merit based. But when someone points at one good example when there is only 1 for every 10, yeah I’ll call that out. Why, are you a kid?
I never said I hate anyone btw. But I don’t like being fleeced.
https://cis.org/Report/Somali-Immigrants-Minnesota
Palm Coast Citizen says
It’s reasonable to care about costs. That’s a systems question. What isn’t reasonable is collapsing people into a cost label and stopping the analysis there.
Public systems are designed to absorb upfront cost in exchange for long-term return. Refugee resettlement, public education, and basic assistance are investments, not lifetime balance sheets. Looking only at early-stage support and ignoring what happens over time is how ROI disappears from the conversation.
You can debate whether the system is designed well without dehumanizing the people moving through it. When the focus shifts from outcomes to calling groups “garbage,” the analysis stops being about policy and starts being about blame.
That distinction matters.
Ray W. says
Hello Greg.
As background, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the overall labor participation rate for the U.S.-born is 63%.
From the same BLS database, the labor participation rate for the overall foreign-born is 68%.
The labor participation rate for the Somali immigrants who reside in south Minnesota is 70.5%. The data comes from the U.S. Census, which conducts what are called American Community Surveys, something the BLS does not do.
Everyone should make of this what they will.
Me?
Comprehensive government studies reflect that immigrants contribute more to the economy than they take.
Every FlaglerLive reader ought to know by now that no one should ever accept at face value anything said by any one member of the professional lying class that sits atop one of our two political parties. The modus operandi of that professional lying class is to lie in hopes that someone, anyone, even Greg, will launder the lie.
Kennan says
Well, done, Ray W.
Always going in on the research. Thank you sir!!!!
Sherry says
Thank you Ray! The factual truth will set us free from the “haters and lie launderers”!
DeSantisRocks says
Overall Households: Over 80% of Somali immigrant households overall received some form of welfare benefits in analyses of past data.
Households with Children: Nearly 90% of Somali households with children in Minnesota were reported to receive welfare benefits.
Specific Programs:
Medicaid: Nearly three-quarters (73%) received Medicaid.
Food Stamps (SNAP): 54% received food stamps, with other reports citing figures around 42% for those receiving SNAP benefits.
Long-Term Residents: Even among households that had been in the U.S. for over 10 years, 78% were receiving welfare, compared to only 21% of native-born households in the same studies.
These statistics often reflect the circumstances under which many Somalis arrived in the U.S.—fleeing civil war and with minimum education or capacity to adopt immediately, often arriving as refugees. The data highlights significant socioeconomic challenges, with over two-thirds of Somali immigrant adults living in or near poverty, as do over 80% of Somali immigrant children.
Not to mention stealing billions of dollars and sending it overseas.
Make of this what you will.
Laurel says
Your numbers mean nothing without stating where you got them, and can be checked. Ray W. threw out stats and resources. Try to keep up.
DeSantisRocks says
Here ya go:
https://cis.org/Report/Somali-Immigrants-Minnesota
I’m not going to dig through all of the actual data these summations come from. But you are welcome to.
All of these statistics come from the Somali Immigrants in Minnesota report on CIS.org and are clearly labeled as being based on 2014-2023 ACS data.
Important note on interpretation:
These figures are household-level participation rates drawn from the American Community Survey. ACS is a large, representative Census Bureau survey, but it is not a complete administrative count of every benefit program. It’s self-reported and subject to sampling error and margins of error, especially for smaller subgroups like Somali households, so official federal administrative records on welfare programs (like SNAP or Medicaid enrollment from USDA or CMS) may show somewhat different numbers. FactCheck.org points out that sampling uncertainty could affect percentages like “27 % cash welfare.”
Palm Coast Citizen says
Before calling people garbage and generating real animosity for people, dig through the data.
For context, the Center for Immigration Studies is not a neutral research body. It’s an advocacy organization with a stated low-immigration policy agenda. That doesn’t automatically make every number wrong, but it does mean the data is selected and framed to support a conclusion.
More importantly, even if you accept those figures at face value, they’re still a snapshot, not a systems analysis. Measuring refugee or immigrant communities at the point of highest public investment and lowest earning power tells you very little about long-term cost or return. Any infrastructure investment looks expensive at the front end if you ignore time.
The real question isn’t “what does it cost right now,” it’s “what happens over a generation.” Education, workforce participation, business creation, and tax contribution all change over time. When ROI is excluded, the analysis is incomplete.
Census-based American Community Survey data show a mix of conditions:
A significant share of Somali households receive SNAP and other assistance, and poverty rates are higher than the state average.
Around 73.9% of Somali Minnesotans have a high school degree or higher, unemployment is around 7–8%, and about 70% participate in the labor force.
Empowering Strategies
Somali households contribute billions in income and generate millions in state and local taxes according to economic modeling tied to Census data.
It’s not a simple analysis, and “garbage,” isn’t accurate.
Skibum says
Comments like that coming from someone who is supposed to be above such juvenile and imbecilic behavior is disgusting! He knows full well that more than anyone else, a president’s words and actions can have serious, far-reaching consequences. This man=baby’s dispicable words and actions after losing the 2020 presidential election resulted in all of the Jan. 6 violence when his maga mob of insurrectionists storming into the U.S Capitol, breaking doors and windows and causing dozens and dozens of serious injuries to federal law enforcement personnel who were trying to stem the maga tide of misfits and protect members of Congress and VP Pence from being hanged on the Capitol lawn.
There have been so many horrible utterances spouting forth from the man-child’s pie hole that have resulted in threats of harm to innocent people, and he does not care one bit who is under threat or actually injured by what he says. He has recently threatened harm to members of Congress, who are now under additional protective measures.
Let’s all be clear. The “garbage” is NOT the Somali community at large who live peacefully in various states within the U.S. The “garbage” is NOT the country of Somalia itself, just because their culture and customs are different from ours.
The actual garbage is what is in the occupier of the WH’s head and what he constantly spouts to all of his maga mush brain supporters, many of whom are violent (yet pardoned) insurrectionists who listen with rapt attention for key phrases that they believe give them permission to mount even more violent actions against individuals as well as this nation’s democracy!
The dude says
MAGA morons gonna moron… it’s all they know.
Oh my! says
Oh my.
What God gave you the right to judge others.
I’ll bet your children went to public schools.
It’s the pot calling the kettle black.
You can believe in anything you want, but don’t expect me to follow such delusional ideology.
I’m a human, a very lucky human at that.
Doesn’t make me better, just luckier.
Your mom must be cringing at your beliefs.
Atwp says
All of us are one breath away from eternity. To call people garbage lead me to believe he is garbage also.
Sherry says
What the Maga “brain trust” cannot seem to comprehend using their “radicalized, hate filled” brains is that “poor” people and immigrants are very often paid “under the table”. That means that their “labor” is NOT RECORDED anywhere. They also often work very hard starting small businesses without paying themselves an official salary. Therefore, as Ray W. pointed out, you must “actually think” and move beyond Right Winged propaganda and Chat GPT to get any accurate sense of how immigrants are supporting themselves.
We benefit from the “cheap labor” of immigrants. Prices are going up not just because of trump’s ridiculous tariffs, but also because trump is deporting those willing to work for pennies on the dollar, without benefits. Yep . . . the Maga “brain trust” is eating it up, maybe because actual food now costs so damned much thanks to trump’s idiotic policies!
Sherry says
BTW, Maga. . . are your kids and grandkids enjoying all those new jobs in the slaughterhouse and roofing industries? What about cleaning toilets? Picking crops? Gardening? Some great career opportunities out there, and at great pay now that labor costs are rising.
Nothing like shooting yourselves in the foot, Right Maga! With everyone “armed to the teeth”. . . it shouldn’t be a problem at all!
DeSantisRocks says
Ahh the modern left….
Democrats 1863: Without slaves, who will pick our crops?
Democrats 2025: Without illegals, who will pick our crops?
You literally are sitting here complaining about not having cheap imported illegal labor to clean your toilets and pick your crops, and you call MAGA racists. Then you want to cry about minimum wage, while artificially keeping them low with slave labor. Sadly, this logic is fully expected anymore.
I will gladly pay higher prices to have jobs filled by legal American citizens. Will you?
Skibum says
Excuse me for saying the obvious, because you are so friggin wrong! It is NOT liberals in 2025 who are saying “Withoug illegals, who will pick our crops?” Go to any farm in America and ask the mostly conservative farm owners who employ migrant farm workers. It is not brain surgery!
Why don’t you turn off the fauxinfotainment nuze BS and look outside your window… you just might see some reality for a change. The farm owners, many of whom throughout rural America are millionaires with hundreds, even thousands of acres under production to feed Americans the crops they grow, are the ones who desperately rely on and NEED migrant farm workers for survival of their businesses.
They are the ones yelling for the WH to stop harassing and removing the very workers from their fields… not to mention all of the corporations that employ migrants in the many packing houses, etc… so your disinformation campaign is revealed for what it is – total, unadulterated BS!
Sherry says
Thank you Skibum!
Some people are now so completely “mindlessly indoctrinated and racist” they rely on disinformation while they spout Fox BS false equivalencies in a lame attempt to excuse their hate filled point of view!
What they don’t want to talk about is the “solution” because their lord and master trump has intentionally demonized people of color.
Immigrants need a reasonable/simple/straightforward process to come to the US “Legally” and have a path to citizenship! In that way they “could” come out of the shadows, work “on payroll” for a living wage and raise their families without the “every day” terrible fear of being cruelly rounded up like lower animals and sent to concentration camps/prisons in El Salvador without “legally required” due process.
The Republicans in congress have completely blocked all attempts at comprehensive “Immigration Reform” again and again for many, many years. Unfortunately, it seem that many Maga Republicans are racists who simply want to make the US “white” again.
A republic if you can keep it says
Excellent Point Sherry, the DesantisRocks person forgets that every group of immigrants had to start at the bottom. Maybe he can share his wealth with those that are less fortunate ( or maybe he should hang on until the full impact of tariffs is felt?) anyway is he supporting Mrs DeSantis next year or the congressman in the pocket of private schools that Trump supports ? How do Florida teachers feel about a governor who will close public schools and move students to his” buddies” ?
A Republic if you can keep it . says
“We elected a President, not a saint” this is what a lot of self described religious , church, temple, synagogue , etc going people say about what Donald Trump does and says.
When he makes jokes about someone nearly killing a man in his 80’s by attacking him with a hammer because he’s married to a democrat congresswoman.
When he rails against a man and his wife murdered by their son, making it about him.
You realize that there is something seriously wrong with this living inhabitant of the White House. When someone that worked next to him says that “ he’s the most damaged person they have ever met” , when you realize that he is 6 months from turning 80 and mentally incompetent, you realize that we are in serious trouble as a country and a people. The congressman who represents us in district 6 says nothing about the fact Donald Trump calls nazis “very fine people” because they support him .
Wait until the economy plummets and then maybe the sycophants that continue to support him will wake up.
DeSantisRocks says
Trump’s post yesterday sucked. That’s true. Rob Reiner consistently said very vile things about Trump, but Trump was wrong here.
But let’s not act like people on the left aren’t constantly vilifying and saying nasty things all the time. We just endured some of the most hateful and disgusting comments and celebrations from people on the left about CK, and it’s an everyday occurrence for us to be called a racist/bigot/fascist/Nazi/Hitler simply because we hold different views. Most of us don’t even care anymore about being called the vilifying names, and that’s sad. The words no longer mean anything to us. But they are very harmful, as it’s easy for the mental rejects to fling bullets at someone they’ve been convinced is evil Hitler.
Oh and:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-very-fine-people/
Kennan says
He didn’t say vile things about Trump. He exposed a vile person and leader, by consistently laying out examples of why. Trump has always made it about him. He knows the dirty nature of the things that he says Garner attention. Trump doesn’t care what kind of attention he gets, just as long as he gets attention. That’s VILE.
Sherry says
Thank You “A Republic If You Can Keep It”! Excellent Points!
Kennan says
I’m with Sherry! Great points!
Sherry says
Thank you again A Republic. . . BTW you are quite correct regarding trump’s remarks. He said: “very fine people on BOTH sides”. Since one side was represented by Nazis, by definition, trump called Nazis “very fine people”! Simply because trump also called “others” very fine people does negate his praise of Nazis!
Laurel says
DeSantisRocks gets his “facts,” about Somalian Americans, as he has stated in this thread, from cis.org.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Immigration_Studies
A known white nationalist, anti immigration think tank.
Skibum says
Yes, correct. I had never heard of “cis.org” before so I looked it up after that comment was posted, and sure enough, despite it’s own proclamation that it is an independent, non-partisan research organization, it is very easy to determine from the links and tone of the articles that it is certainly just another BS anti-immigration site for the maga types to point to for their version of “facts” that support the view that immigrants are ruining this country.
The website says it promotes less immigration, but wants to give those limited few who are approved to receive “a warm welcome” without actually saying the quiet part – if you’re white, maybe from S. Africa and discriminated against because you are white, WELCOME to the U.S. Darkies need not apply. Not to mention all of the other “shithole” countries the convicted felon occupier of the WH hates.
Sherry says
Thank you Laurel and Skibum! I was just about to point out the same thing about CIS.
Sherry says
Everyone needs to be educated about what some Maga cult members use as one of their sources, resulting in their despicable point of view. . . this from Wikipedia:
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is an American anti-immigration[3][4][5][6][7] think tank. It favors far lower immigration numbers and produces analyses to further those views. The CIS was founded by historian Otis L. Graham alongside eugenicist and white nationalist John Tanton in 1985 as a spin-off of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). It is one of a number of anti-immigration organizations founded by Tanton, along with FAIR and NumbersUSA. CIS has been involved in the creation of Project 2025.
Laurel says
Trump again blasted Somali Americans in a horrible way during his address to America last night. I’ve never seen any President behave in such a horrific manner! My God, he’s embarrassing!
Laurel says
But if you pay $1,000,000,000 for his Gold Visa Card, with his fleepin’ face on it, you can get in the US right away! Maybe Trump should put a new plaque under the Statue of Liberty stating such. Instead of “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” it could state “Give me you Gold Card, and I’ll get you right in. Signed, Donald J Trump.”
Oh, c’mon people, really? And you land where in all this?