Trump Speaks at White House Press Conference, Invokes Ilhan Omar

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jan. 20, 2026) — At 1:49 p.m. EST, President Trump entered the White House Briefing Room with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, immediately holding up a “book” he said contained the “accomplishments” of his first term, which officially ended Monday.

In keeping with his earlier Truth Social comment that DHS should publicize why it is making thousands of arrests in America’s cities, he held up flyers with photographs of convicted illegal aliens, all from Minnesota, he said, where ongoing ICE actions have prompted sizable protests on the part of citizen observers and activists.

“These are just in Minnesota; California, it’s worse; other states it’s worse,” he said as he continued holding up flyers one after the other.

“Paid agitators and insurrectionists” are leading the protests, he said.

“Somalians,” he said, are behind a $19B heist of taxpayer money based in Minneapolis through the establishment of fronts for transportation, healthcare, daycare and other social services.

Just prior to the presser, Fox News reported the Justice Department subpoenaed the offices of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and others, presumably in regard to the “fraud” scheme.

“Somalia’s not even a country,” Trump said, “and if it is a country, it’s considered the worst of the worst.” He then called Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is from Somalia, a “crooked congressman.”

In recent months and days, Trump has appeared to focus his attention on Omar, strongly suggesting she engaged in illegal activity such as “marrying her brother” and has intimate knowledge of the Minneapolis fraud.

“She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World,” he wrote on Sunday. “She could help to MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN!”

In a Truth Social post Wednesday, he termed her a “loser” and later that day in Detroit, a “total scam artist.”

On January 13, DHS announced it will end Temporary Protected Status for approximately 2,500 Somalis effective March 17. There are reportedly between 80,000 and 84,000 Somalis living in the state of Minnesota.

The flyers Trump held up of those sought by law enforcement identified Minnesota as the state where the individual is living, beneath which is the person’s photo. Under that was the term, “Worst of the worst.” Below that were listed the crimes of which the individual was convicted.

“These are all so far people who came from outside of the country,” he said as he displayed each flyer briefly before going on to the next.

Crimes leveled against the individuals include murder, gang membership, and domestic abuse, theft, sexual assault, and others, the flyers revealed.

“These are not charges; they’re convictions,” Trump said of one man with 24 convictions.

The “insurrectionists” are “paid,” he said.

Regarding the January 7 “tragic” death of Renée Good by an ICE officer. “I understand both sides of it,” he said, stating her father had been a supporter of his and he hoped that was still the case.

“These are professional agitators,” he said of a bystander to the event who he said shouted, “Shame, shame!” at ICE following the killing.

At 1:58 he asked Leavitt how many illegal-alien criminals are in Minnesota, to which she responded, “Ten thousand.”

“We just got these off a stack,” he said, continuing to flip through the DHS flyers. “I could show you 30 times what I’m showing you now.”

He shifted into recounting his administration’s other first-year accomplishments, including crime reduction, renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” issuing an executive order prohibiting “birthright citizenship,” Congress passing the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” brokering eight peace agreements, lower gasoline prices and increased border security, among others, eventually returning to the issue of illegal-alien entry under Joe Biden.

Somalia, he said, is “not a country,” as it lacks infrastructure such as a police force and other basic societal elements. Invoking Omar yet again, he criticized her for “telling us how to live” while citing the “Constitution.”

He then said with disgust, “I can’t stand her.”

Continuing on the theme of illegal aliens, he said that as of February 1, “We’re not giving money to sanctuary cities anymore,” which he announced on Truth Social last week and will extend to entire states as well.

“Mental institutions and insane asylums” must be “brought back,” he added, to remove dangerous individuals from neighborhoods, for which he signed an executive order in July.

At 3:14, he opened the presser to reporter questions.

On January 7, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY1) held an initial hearing as part of an investigation into “Fraud and Misuse of Federal Funds in Minnesota.” Last week, Comer told the New York Post the committee is seeking “answers” to questions surrounding Omar’s “skyrocketing family wealth” as revealed on a 2025 House Financial Disclosure Report.

The vast majority of her wealth was stated as residing in businesses launched by her husband, Tim Mynett, comprising a California winery and venture capital company, Rose Lake Capital, LLC.

As The Post & Email has reported, Omar married Mynett after divorcing two other men, one of whom is suspected to be her blood brother, Ahmed Elmi.

Omar once denied she married her brother, countering the question with, “But is your president a pedophile?”

On December 4, Trump said Omar “can’t really deny” having married her brother. “She shouldn’t be allowed to be a congresswoman, and I’m sure people are looking at that, and she should be thrown the h*** out of our country,” he said from the Oval Office.

The same day, Omar responded to Trump’s accusations in a press release stating, in part:

On Tuesday, President Trump called my friends and me “garbage.”

This comment was only the latest in a series of remarks and Truth Social posts in which the president has demonized and spread conspiracy theories about the Somali community and about me personally. For years, the president has spewed hate speech in an effort to gin up contempt against me. He reaches for the same playbook of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and division again and again. At one 2019 rally, he egged on his crowd until they chanted “send her back” when he said my name.

Mr. Trump denigrates not only Somalis but so many other immigrants, too, particularly those who are Black and Muslim. While he has consistently tried to vilify newcomers, we will not let him silence us. He fails to realize how deeply Somali Americans love this country. We are doctors, teachers, police officers and elected leaders working to make our country better. Over 90 percent of Somalis living in my home state, Minnesota, are American citizens by birth or naturalization. Some even supported Mr. Trump at the ballot box.

As this story went to press, Omar posted on X, “Trump is terrorizing our city as an act of political retribution. It is straight out of the authoritarian playbook.”

As raised in 2022 by AJ Kern, questions continue to exist over whether Omar ever became a U.S. citizen, an issue Trump has not addressed directly. He has, however, termed her “a fake congresswoman.”

Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution states:

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.