Ilhan Omar Warns Trump’s Rhetoric Is Fueling Political Violence and Threats

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has warned that former President Donald Trump’s recurring personal attacks and dehumanising language are helping to create a climate that fuels political violence with potentially dangerous consequences.

Speaking to the Guardian days after Mr Trump urged that she be "thrown out of the country," Omar said his incendiary rhetoric reaches “the worst humans possible” and can encourage them to act. She described ongoing security concerns stemming from threats against her and other public figures.

“We’ve had people incarcerated for threatening to kill me. We have people that are being prosecuted right now for threatening to kill me and so it is something that does stay in the back of our minds. But I also worry about those people finding someone who looks like me in Minneapolis or across the country and thinking it is me and harming them.”

Omar highlighted a recent rally in Pennsylvania where some attendees chanted “Send her back!” after the president repeated a baseless conspiracy theory that the Somali-born congresswoman had married her brother to obtain US citizenship. Omar — who arrived in the United States as a refugee at age 12 and became a citizen at 17 — called the attacks “vile” and an “unhealthy and creepy obsession.”

Pattern and context. The Minnesota representative said the attacks follow a familiar playbook: when political fortunes wobble, she says, Mr Trump returns to scapegoating and bigotry instead of addressing issues such as cost-of-living pressures. In 2019, after Mr Trump attacked Omar and other progressive lawmakers known as “the Squad,” she received more death threats than any other member of Congress.

Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, told the Guardian the threats are not new; during Mr Trump’s first term the federal government assigned the couple a six-person security detail after a plot targeting her was uncovered. “This isn’t our first rodeo,” Mynett said, “but it’s upsetting to see that this is where the leader of our country wants to draw the national attention.”

Rising threats. US Capitol Police recorded 9,474 concerning statements and direct threats against members of Congress in 2024 — more than double the total recorded in 2017. That increase comes amid a series of violent attacks targeting public officials and political figures in recent years.

Impact on communities. Omar also accused Mr Trump of escalating attacks on Somali Americans, saying he recently described them as “garbage” and labeled Somalia “the worst country in the world.” She criticised what she called the scapegoating of an entire community over isolated fraud cases and emphasized that most Somalis in Minnesota are US citizens, many born in the United States.

In a separate interview with Minnesota station WCCO, Omar said federal immigration agents briefly stopped her son while he was traveling to a Target store and released him once he was able to show his passport. “He always carries it with him,” she added.

Despite the threats and harassment, Omar told the Guardian she will not be deterred from her congressional work — defending healthcare, climate protections and democratic institutions — and will campaign on affordability in next year’s midterms. She warned, however, that American democracy has vulnerabilities and urged stronger institutional safeguards.

“His presidency has exposed some weaknesses that exist and it has certainly taught us that, while our institutions are strong, they are fragile to a dictatorship-like ruler. We must do more to create stronger guardrails to make sure that the independence of our institutions remains.”