President Donald Trump went after Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar in a bid to cheer up the few thousands who gathered in Tulsa for his first rally since the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic in the United States.
Omar is a favorite target of Trump and on the night, the president’s harsh criticism was no different from what he has previously said about her.
“She would like to make the government of our country just like the country from where she came. Somalia. No government, no safety, no police, no nothing. Just anarchy. And now she is telling us how to run our country. No thank you,” said Trump of Omar, making the effort to emphasize that Omar was not born in the US.
The president also called Omar a “hate-filled, American bashing socialist”. Omar, in a tweet, called Trump’s remarks racist, adding a photo of a poll in Minnesota that showed presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden leading.
But the BBC reports that the Somali Foreign Ministry said it had no response to Trump referring to their country in the terms in which he did.
Somalia has been beset with decades of political crises that has taken a lot of lives but the country is finding support from the international community to establish some stability.
This is not the first time an African country has refused to challenge Trump’s insults of their country. After the US president called Africa a “shithole”, Kenya’s government expressed indifference to the comments.
In its first reaction to the brouhaha that ensued in early 2018, Kenya’s government’s spokesperson Eric Kiraithe told the media that the remark had nothing to do with Kenya and will not affect its relationship with the U.S. government.
“The statement was not an official matter that, say, is related to the relationship with the government. We enjoy a cordial relationship,” Kiraithe told local news portal TheEastAfrican.
