Trump Says Rep. Ilhan Omar Should Be ‘In Jail’ or ‘Sent Back to Somalia’

President Donald Trump declared that Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar should be locked away or sent out of the country in a social media post as tensions continue to escalate between ICE agents and civilians in the Democrat’s home state.

Trump, 79, has previously publicly insulted Omar, 43, and his Sunday, Jan. 18, Truth Social post is the latest jab from the president at the congresswoman.

“There is 19 Billion Dollars in Minnesota Somalia Fraud. Fake ‘Congresswoman’ Illhan Omar, a constant complainer who hates the USA, knows everything there is to know,” Trump wrote. “She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World. She could help to MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN!”

The Trump administration has been using such fraud allegations as reason to send federal law enforcement to Minnesota, which is home to the largest Somali population in the U.S. Increased presence of federal agents has led to clashes between law enforcement and civilians, including two shootings in Minneapolis this month, one of which resulted in the death of Renee Nicole Good.

Omar, who has been a U.S. citizen since 2000, was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. After her family was sponsored for asylum in 1995, they arrived in Virginia and later moved to Minneapolis. Omar became the first Somali American in Congress and the first woman of color to represent Minnesota when she was elected to the House in 2019.

She did not share a public response to the president’s Truth Social post, and instead marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day by posting a quote to X from the late civil rights icon.

“’Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.’ I’m thinking of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words today as we see the immense love our community has for one another, especially in this time of deep injustice,” she wrote in a Monday, Jan. 19 post.

Omar’s office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Monday.

Trump previously called Omar and other Somali immigrants “garbage” during a December 2025 Cabinet meeting, and suggested they “go back to where they came from.”

During a discussion at the White House about immigration and Minnesota’s Somali community, the president said, “I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you … Somebody will say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country.”

He continued, “Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don’t want them in our country,” before adding that the U.S. had reached a “tipping point,” and could “go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”

At one point in the meeting, he also said, “Ilhan Omar is garbage. Her friends are garbage,” adding, “These aren’t people that work. These aren’t people that say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great.’ These are people that do nothing but complain.”

“You know, if they came from paradise, and they said, ‘This isn’t paradise,’ but when they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but b—-, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it,” he said.

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His remarks came after the publication of a New York Times report about federal prosecutors charging dozens with felonies in Minnesota amid an alleged fraud case in the state.

Omar reposted some of the president’s comments on X after the meeting, where she wrote, “His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”