Sky York Journal
President Donald Trump spent the first anniversary of his second term on Tuesday pitching himself to the American people from behind the White House briefing room podium. In nearly two hours of remarks, Trump seemingly sought to address his cratering approval by running through a list of his supposed accomplishments. His remarks also included a series of vicious, racist remarks about Somalian people and other immigrants.
“They all ought to get the hell out of here, they’re bad for our country,” Trump said of the Somali population at one point during the extraordinary rant.
At multiple points during his remarks, Trump indicated he felt the need to make his case directly because his team was not up to the task. A slew of anniversary polls show the president’s numbers are currently underwater with notably steep declines in voter approval of the president’s handling of his signature issues: immigration and the economy. Those figures have come amid slow job growth and violent raids staged by Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
“Maybe I have bad public relations people, but we’re not getting it across,” Trump said as he argued the economy is particularly strong since he returned to office.
Trump came equipped with a couple of binders including one labeled “ACCOMPLISHMENTS.” Yet as he read through the provided list, Trump repeatedly raged against the Somali population, including suggesting that they are of inferior intelligence. Trump first turned to the topic as he alluded to the ongoing ICE raids in Minnesota, which have been met with massive protests. The state is home to the country’s largest Somali population and the federal crackdown has come amid a wave of right-wing influencers making exaggerated claims about alleged daycare fraud in the community.
“Nineteen billion dollars at a minimum is missing in Minnesota, given to a large degree by Somalians. They’ve taken it,” Trump said. ”Somalians, can you imagine? And they don’t do it — a lot of very low IQ people. They don’t do it. Other people work it out and they get them money and they go out and buy Mercedes Benzes.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump posted a video on his Truth Social platform where Andy Frisella, a podcaster who sells a “mental toughness program” suggested the daycare fraud must be part of a larger conspiracy since Somalians “have an average IQ of 68.” The claims reek of eugenics, the debunked racist theories arguing certain races are genetically inferior.
After suggesting “other people” must be helping Somalis commit fraud, Trump claimed they have achieved immense wealth through this practice. And he took the opportunity to trash their homeland.
“They never had money. They never had a life. They never had a government. They never had a country because there’s basically no country. Somalia’s not even a country,” Trump said. “They don’t have anything that resembles a country and, if it is a country, it’s considered just about the worst in the world. They come here, and they become rich, and they don’t have a job.”
While Trump was particularly fixated on Somalia, he also made racist comments about other immigrants while claiming the people who have been targeted by ICE are “bad people” and “rough characters.” Trump underscored this point by waving mugshots of individual offenders labeled the “WORST OF THE WORST.” Data has consistently shown the majority of people deported and detained by ICE have not committed violent crimes. And, as he railed against “criminal illegal aliens,” Trump admitted to having a soft spot for a largely white violent American biker gang.
“They make our Hell’s Angels look like the sweetest people on Earth,” Trump said.
“The Hell’s Angels are now considered a nice high quality person. I like the Hell’s Angels. They voted for me,” Trump continued, adding, “But they make our criminals look like babies. These are some of the most vicious people anywhere in the world. They came from the Congo.”
Trump has previously made denigrating comments about African, Caribbean, and Latin American nations, infamously referring to Haiti and some African countries as “shithole countries” during a private meeting in 2018. However, the high-profile setting and content of his remarks on Tuesday was a whole different level.
“Somalians you know what they’re good at that’s about the only thing they’re good at is they’re good at pirating ships at sea,” Trump said at another point during the briefing.
Trump then turned to the Somali-American Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who has been one of his most vocal critics in Congress.
“I always hate to see this Ilhan Omar. She comes from Somalia, a backward country, probably the worst country,” Trump said, adding, “There’s no organization, no anything. They don’t have police, they don’t have military, they don’t have anything. They just have people running around killing each other and trying to pirate ships, but she’ll come here, comes and then she wants to tell us how to run our country.”
Trump then made a mocking impression of Omar criticizing him for violating the Constitution.
“I can’t stand her,” he said.
Omar’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As per usual, Trump’s extended press conference included a number of questionable claims. That included his false claim that his 2020 election loss was “rigged” — an alarming theme to see Trump return to amid his stated desire to somehow stop future voting. Yet even with all this bluster and rancor, it was the rage at a small African nation and the unabashed racism that was truly extraordinary.
After speaking for over an hour, Trump took questions from the White House press corps. None of them pressed him on the comments about Somalia or its people.
The event was a stunning display of how much has changed in the past year, although perhaps not in the way Trump intended. At one point, as Trump noted how many investigations he has managed to survive, the president himself seemed to marvel at how much he has been able to get away with.
“Nobody ever went through what I went through and here I am in a place called the White House,” Trump said as he surveyed the room and smiled. “It’s a beautiful place. Who would have thought right?”
