A congresswoman who has become the brunt of President Donald Trump's vitriol told of her father's "bewilderment" as he saw his daughter attacked by the leader of the free world.
Rep Ilhan Omar described the experience in a personal essay in the New York Times — just days after Trump's latest attack called her and other Somalians in the U.S. "garbage."
"When I was sworn into Congress in 2019, my father turned to me and expressed bewilderment that the leader of the free world was picking on a freshman member of Congress, one out of 535 members of the legislative body," wrote Omar, who came to the U.S. as a child refugee and is now a Democratic representative of Minnesota.
"The president’s goal may have been to try to tear me down, but my community and my constituents rallied behind me then, just as they are now."
In 2019, Trump spoke about Omar while inciting a crowd to chant "send her back." His attacks on her had continued since.
He made the garbage attack on Tuesday.
"This comment was only the latest in a series of remarks and Truth Social posts in which the president has demonized and spread conspiracy theories about the Somali community and about me personally," he wrote.
"For years, the president has spewed hate speech in an effort to gin up contempt against me. He reaches for the same playbook of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and division again and again."
She added, "He fails to realize how deeply Somali Americans love this country. We are doctors, teachers, police officers and elected leaders working to make our country better. Over 90 percent of Somalis living in my home state, Minnesota, are American citizens by birth or naturalization. Some even supported Mr. Trump at the ballot box."
But, she said, his attacks were putting their lives at risk, citing death threats she has received — and that are now spreading to members of the Somalian community.
Omar concluded by saying that Trump's victimization of one community showed clearly that he's struggling.
"The president knows he is failing, and so he is reverting to what he knows best: trying to divert attention by stoking bigotry," she wrote.
