Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, criticized President Donald Trump on Thursday for describing the state’s Somali community as „garbage.“
Walz said Trump’s statements of contempt for the state’s Somali community were „unprecedented for a United States president.“
„We’ve got little children going to school today who their president called them garbage,“ the blue state governor said.
Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the country, with about 84,000 people in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area of Somali descent. Nearly 60% of Somalis in the state were born in the U.S., while 87% of the foreign-born Somalis are naturalized U.S. citizens.
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Trump’s comments about Somalis in the state have intensified after the City Journal, a conservative news outlet, claimed last month that taxpayer dollars from defrauded government programs have been sent to the Somali militant group al-Shabab, an affiliate of al-Qaida.
The alleged ringleader of the fraud scheme is white, but dozens of people in the Somali community have reportedly been involved.
On Thanksgiving, Trump said Minnesota was „a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity“ and that he was terminating Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in the state.
On Tuesday, the president said at a Cabinet meeting that he did not want Somali immigrants to remain in the U.S.
„We can go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,“ he said.
During the meeting, he also called Somalia-born Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., „garbage“ and said Somalia „stinks.“
On Wednesday, Trump said Minnesota had become a „hellhole“ because of the Somali community.
„Somalians should be out of here,“ he told reporters. „They’ve destroyed our country.“
The Trump administration launched immigration enforcement operations targeting migrants living among Minnesota’s Somali community.
„Demonizing an entire group of people by their race and their ethnicity, a very group of people who contribute to the vitality — economic, cultural — of this state is something I was hoping we’d never have to see,“ Walz told reporters during a briefing on the state’s budget. „This is on top of all the other vile comments.“
Republican legislative leaders have been reluctant to condemn Trump’s remarks, although some did suggest he went too far. They also contended that the dispute would not have happened if Walz had acted more effectively to stop fraud in social service programs.
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„In no way do I believe any community is all bad. Just like I don’t believe any community is all good. What we need to do is call the fraudsters in any community accountable for their actions and stop it here in the state of Minnesota,“ Republican Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who is running for governor and hopes to secure Trump’s endorsement, told reporters.
Republican state Sen. Eric Pratt, who is running for the congressional seat being vacated by Democrat U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, also would not defend the president’s comments.
„It wasn’t said the way that I would have said it,“ Pratt said. „But what I will say is, I share the president’s frustration in the amount of fraud and corruption that’s effectively gone on in the state. I mean, it’s really put a black eye on the state, and we are in the national news for all the wrong reasons.“
Trump and Walz have repeatedly hurled insults at each other in the past, including the president hitting the Minnesota Democrat as „grossly incompetent,“ a „mess“ and „re–-ed“ and the governor calling Trump a „wannabe dictator,“ a „cruel man“ and a „bad human being,“ and ICE under the administration a „modern-day Gestapo.“
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