During a White House Cabinet meeting on March 26, President Trump made several harsh comments about Minnesota’s Somali community. He called Somalia “a crooked country, disgusting country, one of the worst countries in the world,” and claimed Somali immigrants have “low IQs” and “rob us blind.”
Aaron Rupar uploaded the video to X, and it quickly went viral, attracting quite a bit of interaction from the president’s supporters and detractors. The comments are part of a pattern in which Trump has targeted the Somali community in Minnesota, calling them “garbage” at a Cabinet meeting in December 2025, referring to Minnesota as “a hellhole,” and advocating for the return of Somalis to their home country.
It is important to note that numerous fact-checkers and researchers have refuted Trump’s assertions regarding Somali immigrants. The majority of Somali Americans in Minnesota are citizens of the United States, debunking Trump’s assertion that 92% of Minnesota Somalis are unemployed, according to PolitiFact.
Internet Reacts to Trump’s Minnesota Somali Community Remarks
Reactions online were sharply critical, with the clip drawing widespread condemnation. Many expressed disbelief at the language used by a sitting president, with one commenter writing, “BLATANT racism and he is the President of the United States.”
Others pointed to what they saw as a logical contradiction in the remarks, with one writing, “If people you consider low IQ can rob you, then who is really low IQ?”
Some expressed resignation at the pattern of behavior, writing, “This is the President of the United States using this racist language — how he gets away with it time after time is absolutely wild.”
Not all reactions were critical, since some commenters agreed with the president’s characterization of Somali immigrants, with one writing, “A lot of them really should not be unsupervised in the west.”
The overwhelming response, however, reflected shock at both the content and the setting in which the remarks were made.
The video strikes a chord because it is the most recent in a growing trend of presidential rhetoric that targets a particular ethnic group. This time, it was delivered in front of the nation’s top government officials on camera during a formal White House Cabinet meeting rather than at a rally.
In the last four months, the White House has repeatedly targeted the Somali community in Minnesota by name. According to U.S. Census data, there are about 80,000 Somali residents in Minnesota, the vast majority of whom are citizens of the United States.
