Washington (QNN)- Somali Americans responded to Donald Trump’s latest attack with a wave of sharp satire that spread quickly across social media. Their posts mocked the former president’s comments after he called Somali immigrants “garbage” and demanded that they “go back” during a cabinet meeting. Trump also targeted Rep. Ilhan Omar, said Somalia “stinks,” and claimed Somalis “contribute nothing.” His remarks came as his administration moved to intensify deportation operations in Minnesota, where about 80,000 Somali Americans live, most of them citizens or legal residents.
Instead of retreating, Somali creators launched a satirical trend that used the same logic and language commonly found in Zionist narratives about Palestine. The campaign turned those talking points upside down and applied them to Minnesota.
Users joked that God promised Somalis the state of Minnesota 3,000 years ago. Others wrote that Minnesota was nothing but a frozen wasteland until Somalis arrived and built civilization. Maps circulated showing a proposed “two-state solution” in which Somalis controlled almost the entire United States except for two tiny American enclaves.
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Creators also introduced a new term, “anisomalism,” a playful parody of “antisemitism,” and claimed, jokingly, that former Somali President Abdiqasim Salad Hassan descended from “Benjamin Lincoln.” Some posts insisted that the US Founding Fathers were Somali or that Somalis discovered America before Columbus. One meme even declared that a militant named Hamice was hiding inside a Minnesota hospital, which supposedly gave Somalis the “right” to bomb the hospital; a direct satire of Israeli claims about Gaza’s medical centers.
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Trump’s rant coincided with reports in the New York Times and Associated Press that federal agencies would deploy “strike teams” of ICE and other officers in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area to detain Somalis with final deportation orders. Right-wing media amplified several fraud cases involving a small number of Somali residents. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent even suggested, without evidence, that taxpayer funds in Minnesota may have been diverted to al-Shabaab.
City officials pushed back. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the city stands firmly with its Somali residents. He stressed that Minneapolis police do not cooperate with immigration enforcement and warned that Trump’s crackdown could lead to the detention of US citizens “for no other reason than they look Somali.” Frey said, “To our Somali community, we love you and we stand with you,” adding that the city’s commitment is “rock solid.”
