President Donald Trump reignited his calls to deport a sitting member of Congress Saturday after sharing an old video of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) – a naturalized U.S. citizen – speaking positively about the country in which she was born, Somalia.
“She should go back!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, alongside a video of Omar speaking at an event and declaring Somalia to be her “home,” a video that was first shared last year by the far-right X user “End Wokeness” which has frequently targeted Muslims and spread misinformation, including theories about Haitian immigrants eating pets.
Omar and her family fled Somalia when she was a child during its civil war.
Omar’s remarks in the video were translated from Somali into English, though past comments of hers have been mistranslated to stir controversy.
Trump has long targeted Omar as a target for deportation. At a rally in 2019, Trump supporters chanted “send her back” after the president criticized Omar, and in September, Trump told Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to “take back” Omar.
The X user “End Wokeness” – the user who uploaded the video of Omar shared by Trump – got caught in hot water last year after sharing another video of Omar with deceptively mistranslated quotes that suggested the Minnesota lawmaker prioritized her home country over the United States. Critics quickly labeled the translation – which saw Republican lawmakers rush to condemn Omar – as an unfair “smear.”