"Filthy, Dirty, Disgusting": Trump's Racist Tirade Against African Migrants

US President Donald Trump has disparaged Somalia as "filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime", calling immigrants from the African nation "garbage" he does not want in America. The Republican leader made the contemptuous remarks during a rally in Pennsylvania, where he also launched a racist attack on Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Muslim born in Somalia. 

Bringing public attention to his anti-immigration agenda, Trump said, "Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few? Let us have a few. From Denmark ... send us some nice people. Do you mind? But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime. The only thing they're good at is going after ships."

President Trump attacked so-called third-world countries, using terms like "hellhole" and "shithole" to describe their people. He questioned why people from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden weren't more welcome to migrate to the U.S. He also referred to Somalia as filthy. pic.twitter.com/xrepU5ZZP5

— Suleiman Hashi (@SuleimanHashi) December 10, 2025

Even for Trump, who is often heard making derogatory remarks about immigrants, the rant against Somalis was alarming for the use of xenophobic terms. The President on Tuesday also admitted that he used the slur “shithole countries” to disparage Haiti and African nations during a 2018 meeting, bragging about remarks that sparked global outrage during his first term.

Further, he described Democrat Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota representative who migrated to the United States from Somalia as a refugee, as "garbage".

"Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is. With her little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but bitch. She's always complaining,' he said.

Trump said the United States is "going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country."

"She's garbage. Her friends, garbage. These aren't people who work. These aren't people who say 'let's go, come on, let's make this place great," he said, talking about Omar.

"We ought to get her the hell out! She married her brother ... Therefore she's here illegally," he added as the crowd chanted, "Send her back!"

Omar fled from Somalia's civil war as a child and came to the US as a refugee. She became a US citizen in 2000. There is no evidence supporting Republicans' allegation that Omar married her brother, which she has long described as "absolutely false and ridiculous".

Trump's Latest Anti-Immigration Move

Last month, Trump had said he would "permanently pause" migration from "all Third World Countries" and deport foreign nationals who are a "security risk" as his administration intensified its crackdown on immigration in the wake of the killing of a National Guard member by Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services issued new guidance allowing for "negative, country-specific factors" to be considered when vetting aliens from 19 high-risk countries.

These countries are Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Yemen.  These are the same countries that were subject to a travel ban announced by Trump in a proclamation issued in June this year.

The proclamation 'Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats' restricted and limited the entry of nationals of these countries into the US and applied to both immigrants and nonimmigrants.