Regardless of the midterm election outcome in less than two weeks, President Donald Trump is putting public pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) not to seat a Democratic lawmaker.
Trump posted on Truth Social at 11:20 p.m. ET Thursday, demanding that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) resign and claiming she was sworn into Congress under a “fake name.” He asked that Johnson be told her seat has been “conceded.” The post repeated comments he made at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, that night, according to Breitbart.
“It was just revealed that Ilhan Omar’s name is not Ilhan Omar, the one she used to get elected and sworn into Congress, but rather, it’s an entirely different name, Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, and that her last name is, incredibly, also the exact name of her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, the person they said she married and had children with,” Trump wrote. “When asked whether or not she married her brother, she said, ‘Not to my knowledge.’ In other words, she somehow didn’t know?”
“Therefore, because she used a fake name to be sworn in, I assume she must IMMEDIATELY resign from Congress,” he continued. “Please inform the Speaker of the House of Representatives, James Michael Johnson, that the Dumocrat Party has just conceded her seat. Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, her real name, has openly admitted to FRAUD, and she will not be legally allowed to be a Member of this August Body from this point forth.”
Trump’s post followed a New York Post report that federal prosecutors referred to Omar in a court filing as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar,” Mediaite reported.
Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is Omar’s brother, according to Mediaite. Reports say Omar legally married Elmi in 2009 and divorced him in 2017. Omar has denied the sibling allegation, calling it “absurd and offensive” in 2016, according to Business Insider. The Truth Social post did not say where the “Not to my knowledge” quote came from, and neither Breitbart nor Mediaite reported a response from Omar or Johnson.
The post comes as the Justice Department investigates Omar’s citizenship. Federal agents raided her Washington home earlier this month, and Fox News reported the probe is examining whether her citizenship was obtained fraudulently.