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Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) has said that the Trump administration is grasping at straws after President Donald Trump announced on Monday that his administration is launching an investigation into the oft-targeted Democratic lawmaker, in the wake of the horrific Border Patrol killing of Alex Pretti this weekend.
In a post on Truth Social Monday, Trump said that the DOJ and Congress are “looking at” Omar, repeating the lie that she is “reportedly worth more than 44 Million Dollars.”
The post comes just two days after the president suggested, without evidence, that Omar bears responsibility for Pretti’s death, in another rant on Truth Social. “Why does Ilhan Omar have $34 Million Dollars in her account?” he wrote on Saturday.
Omar said that the accusations are a farce, pointing out that Republicans have long tried to investigate and punish her. She said that his announcement of the investigation is a way to deflect from cratering favorability among the public.
“Sorry, Trump, your support is collapsing and you’re panicking. Right on cue, you’re deflecting from your failures with lies and conspiracy theories about me. Years of ‘investigations’ have found nothing,” said Omar in a post on X. “Get your goons out of Minnesota.”
Indeed, for years, the lawmaker has been a frequent target of Trump, who has made numerous bigoted remarks about her Somali origin and Muslim faith, and has called for her to be deported despite her being a citizen.
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Kentucky) told the New York Post last week that he is planning to investigate her and her business owner husband’s net worth.
Omar’s personal wealth, like that of many other members of Congress, is unclear. Though Republicans have made numerous allegations of impropriety with regard to her and her husband’s personal wealth, there has thus far been no evidence of wrongdoing by the lawmaker.
Trump also said in his post that he is sending “border czar” Tom Homan to Minnesota on Monday night.
Homan, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, “will be managing ICE Operations on the ground in Minnesota to continue arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” despite the vast majority of those detained by ICE having no convictions, and the arrests being carried out in ways that are unconstitutional and illegal, reports and experts have said.
Rather, the announcements come as the administration is scrambling to contain the damage in the wake of another killing in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents.
Public support for the immigration raids by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, among others, is fading fast — while support for abolishing ICE is rising fast. Trump’s approval rating is continuing on its steady decline, amid countless scandals. Nearly all of his major policies, including his immigration raids in Minneapolis, are being challenged in court. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Minnesotans waged a historic general strike on Friday, drawing massive crowds.
Omar has previously noted Trump’s penchant for stoking hatred and vitriol in order to deflect from other issues. In December, as Trump made blatantly racist comments about Somalis, Omar wrote: “The president knows he is failing, and so he is reverting to what he knows best: trying to divert attention by stoking bigotry.”
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