Truthout is a vital news source and a living history of political struggle. If you think our work is valuable, support us with a donation of any size.
In a White House cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Donald Trump used racist language to deride Somali people in Minnesota, blanketly describing the entire community as criminals.
“They’re all crooks, the Somalians,” Trump said. “What they’ve done to Minnesota, the Somalians, they’re crooked as hell.”
Trump then targeted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), saying, “They’re all crooks. Ilhan Omar. They’re all crooks.”
Trump further asserted that his administration had “got them,” and that they’re “putting the clamps” on Somalis who he claims are committing widespread fraud through federal safety net programs. These claims are largely based on debunked “reporting” from right-wing influencers.
Trump frequently pushes baseless or exaggerated claims of fraud to justify slashing funds for public services, particularly in Democratic-run states, such as Minnesota. But despite his supposed crusade against fraud, Trump has pardoned dozens of individuals convicted of financial crimes and public corruption, including granting clemency last year to an individual who was found guilty of pilfering over $200 million in funds from Medicare.
Omar has faced relentless bigotry from the Trump administration, with officials spreading Islamophobic conspiracy theories about her and calling for her deportation — rhetoric that has incited death threats and even stoked violence against her. Earlier this month, Vice President JD Vance claimed that the Department of Justice was investigating the Minnesota Democrat, implying that the inquiry dealt with claims that she had lied on her immigration paperwork and family finances. Vance also implied — as Trump has done in the past — that officials were probing bogus assertions that she had married her brother in order to gain citizenship.
“You read the things about Ilhan Omar and about you know who she married and whether she didn’t marry this person or that person. It certainly seems like something fishy is there,” Vance said at the time.
In fact, such claims have been thoroughly debunked multiple times over.
Trump has a long history of peddling racist rhetoric, including in recent months.
In December, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was targeting Somali people in Minneapolis, Trump called the community “garbage,” and said Somalis “contribute nothing” to society.
In February, Trump shared to his Truth Social account an animated video that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes — a centuries-old racist trope leveled against Black people.
In April, Truthout conducted an analysis of Trump’s Truth Social posts describing people as “low IQ,” a phrase critics have described as a racist dog whistle. That analysis found that since starting his second term, 84 percent of Trump’s posts using the phrase were referring to people of color.
And last month, Trump shared a transcript from right-wing podcaster Michael Savage, in which the host described nonwhite immigrants coming to the U.S. (and their children) as being from “hellhole” countries. Savage also claimed in the transcript that those children, now U.S. citizens, were more loyal to their parents’ countries than to the U.S., another racist trope.
Important Message: Please Read
For 25 years, Truthout has survived by publishing impactful investigative journalism and analysis; distributing full editions 365 days a year; and building a community of readers who support us with small, hard-earned donations.
Eighty percent of our $3 million yearly budget comes from small donors alone. Of those, 8,000 readers support us with monthly donations. Back in 2018, when Facebook decided to suppress the circulation of posts made by organizations, thereby cutting readers off from seeing many articles shared by the news organizations they had intentionally decided to follow, Truthout’s total traffic declined by 40 percent, as nearly all of our traffic from that platform disappeared.
As Google plans to roll out its new AI search bar, providing shoddy AI summaries instead of directing readers to our site, the consequences promise to be even more explosive. Google Search is our single largest source of traffic; it’s the route by which 27 percent of our readers find us. If even half of that 27 percent disappears, it will have a devastating impact on our journalism.
The entire journalism ecosystem will shoulder this blow, particularly independent publishers and news sites that depend on traffic and aren’t bankrolled by large corporations. If you can support Truthout with a donation today, you can help us resist the inevitability of Big Tech’s AI takeover. Please give today.