President Donald Trump hurled a staccato of xenophobic slurs against the Somali population in the U.S., calling them “garbage” that he does not want on American soil amid renewed anti-immigration rhetoric on Tuesday.
Mr Trump made these derogatory comments considered highly divisive even for the president’s standard during a tail-end cabinet meeting at the White House, where he also suggested that Somalis “stink”.
“These are people who do nothing but complain. They complain, and from where they came from, they got nothing,” Mr Trump said, while Vice-President JD Vance banged the table in agreement during the rant.
He added, “When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”
As expected, Mr Trump shifted his focus to Democratic representative Ilhan Omar, whom he has had several social media feuds with, referring to the Somalia-born lawmaker, who became a U.S. naturalised citizen 25 years ago.
“We could go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” the president said. “She’s garbage. Her friends, garbage. These aren’t people who work. These aren’t people who say ‘let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great.”
