President Donald Trump questioned whether Rep. Ilhan Omar had constitutional rights as a naturalized citizen after federal officials searched her home, bringing the status of a citizen and political opponent into his midterm campaign rhetoric.
Citizenship Under Challenge
Trump described Omar as coming “from one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet.” On Monday in Ohio, he said: “She’s a disaster. She comes in from a country without laws, without police, without military, without — all they do is shoot each other. They come into the United States of America and they tell us how to run our country. We’re not going to stand for it.” He claimed Somalis drive up taxes and the costs of healthcare, insurance and childcare.
The Department of Justice said it conducted an enforcement operation at Omar’s home. Omar is running for reelection, but no one could independently verify evidence or accusations against her yet. Omar said Trump had smeared her for years and was now targeting her as a political enemy.
Minnesota welcomed tens of thousands of Somalis in the early 1990s, after violence brought their East African country to collapse. The administration says violent criminals and widespread fraud centered in day care centers exist in the community. Somali leaders say violent criminals make up a tiny minority and that Trump and Republicans malign the community without justification.
Candidates and Campaign Rhetoric
Trump has also attacked Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, mocking his name and calling him a “jihadist.” In Tennessee on Saturday, Trump said, “I call him Mohammed,” then added: “Somebody said, ‘His name isn’t Mohammed’ I’m the president, I can call him whatever the hell I want.” On Monday night in Ohio, Trump said, “He’s a jihadist.” El-Sayed formerly served as executive director of the Detroit Health Department.
El-Sayed said Trump’s focus on his name insulted voters’ intelligence. “He knows my name is Abdul. He says it everyday,” El-Sayed wrote on X. “But he’s not just attacking me. He’s attacking all of us. He thinks so low of us. He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us at the pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor’s office.”
Republicans have sought to draw attention to El-Sayed’s claim, made shortly after the October 7 attacks, that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Many American Jews, including Democratic voters, object to the term, even as they mourn the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in the Israel-Hamas war after terror attacks that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, in 2023.
Vice President JD Vance called James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate in Texas, a “freak” on Tuesday and joked in a way that implied Talarico is gay. Trump has repeatedly claimed Talarico is a vegan incompatible with Texas. Talarico now often appears pictured with a plate of meat. The races involving El-Sayed and Talarico were expected to go down to the wire on November 3.
Political Stakes
Trump’s approval rating stood at 33% in the latest CNN poll of polls, three weeks before the midterm election. Polls showed majorities of Americans blamed his decisions for worsening their struggles with the high costs of food, housing, gasoline and diesel. Trump and Vance visited red states to campaign, where Republicans hadn’t expected to fight in the final stretch.
Vance’s remark about Talarico came as Attorney General Ken Paxton, the GOP Senate candidate Trump personally selected for the seat, faced a struggling, scandal-plagued campaign, according to the article. Trump’s aides deny he is racist or uses racist rhetoric. They point to his events marking occasions such as Black History Month and to his increased support among minority voters in the 2024 election.
Republican voters have alleged a double standard, saying Democrats use demeaning language about conservatives and Trump voters. Some embraced Hillary Clinton’s description of half of them as a “basket of deplorables”; some senior Democrats openly called Trump a fascist. The campaign dispute now includes competing claims about who represents American culture and who has a legitimate voice in national politics.