While calls intensified for Rep. Ilhan Omar to resign from Congress after saying she puts Somalia’s interests above all else, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is going one step further by demanding she is deported and stripped of her U.S. citizenship.
DeSantis’ sentiments are the most severe of the backlash that ensued over the weekend, with Rep. Marjorie Taylore Greene calling her a ‘terrorist sympathizer’ and Donald Trump Jr. lamenting that the U.S. is not even in the ‘top three’ of her priorities.
Video emerged of Omar’s speech in Minneapolis on Saturday where she declared she is ‘Somalia first’.
‘Expel from Congress, denaturalize and deport!’ DeSantis, who dropped out of the 2024 presidential race earlier this month, posted to X on Tuesday.
Rep. Omar is a member of the progressive squad of lawmakers in the House who emigrated from Somalia in 1995. She said in Somalian that her home country is her top priority when legislating in Congress.
Her second priority, according to a translation of the remarks, is Islam.
‘You know, Ilhan Omar says stuff like, ‘Oh, well, I’m Somali first, Muslim next. We’re going to make sure that Somali is heard.’ Like, you now, you are in the United States Congress,’ Trump Jr. lamented in Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday evening.
‘Like we don’t even get a mention anymore in America,’ he added. ‘Like, we’re not even top three or we just get forgot about entirely.’
‘And yet, that feels like it’s coming from so much of Congress. By the way, including from our own side,’ he added.
Don Jr. then slammed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for also being out of touch with average Americans by claiming that funding the war in Ukraine is a top priority of U.S. citizens.
Rather, the former president’s eldest son said that going around the country and meeting with people working the venues teaches him that his father’s messaging is working.
‘I’ve said this now numerous times – we talked about the war in Ukraine. You know, I hear Mitch McConnell, he’s out there: ‘It’s the number one priority of Americans.’ I’m like, it’s not for me,’ Don Jr. said.
‘And I can assure you just by speaking to this room alone today,’ he added, ‘I have been in front of more real Americans than Mitch McConnell has probably in his entire 279-year career.’
Rep. Omar is being accused of ‘treason’ and calls to be removed from Congress as she faces fierce opposition for the speech where she unapologetically declared she is ‘Somalia first.’
Somaliland Ambassador Rhoda Elmi reposted video of Omar’s speech on X and called it ‘regrettably unbecoming’ and ‘lacking in common decency.’
‘We hope the house leadership and her caucus will take note of her public conduct, unbecoming a United States Congresswoman nor representative of the august house she serves in,’ Elmi wrote in her lengthy statement posted to X.
The leaked video of Omar’s speech on January 27 quickly went viral and garnered widespread criticism, including from far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) who accused her colleague of using her position to protect people who ‘hate America’ and also said she’s clearly admitting to putting another country ahead of American interests.
House Majority Whip Tim Emmer, who also represents a district in Minnesota , called for his colleague’s resignation.
‘Ilhan Omar’s appalling, Somalia-first comments are a slap in the face to the Minnesotans she was elected to serve and a direct violation of her oath of office,’ Rep. Emmer said in a statement, according to Alpha News . ‘She should resign in disgrace.’
Omar decried the criticism as ‘completely off,’ claiming she is saying that her top priority as a U.S. member of Congress is to represent the best interests of Somali people in America.
‘Sleep in comfort knowing I am here to protect the interest of Somalia from inside the U.S. system,’ Omar said while speaking in Somalian at a Minneapolis event on Saturday when the moment was captured on camera and circulated online.
She also uplifted Somalia’s ‘unity’ against Ethiopia and Somaliland, which is an unrecognized state considered part of Somalia, and supported Somalia forcibly retaking land around their country.
ACT for America founder and Chairwoman Brigitte Gabriel wrote on X: ‘Ilhan Omar puts Somalia first, Islam second, and America last.’
Rep. Greene wrote: ‘Terrorist sympathizer Ilhan Omar in her own words: Somalian first. Muslim second. She never mentions America.’
‘She flaunts using her position as congresswoman to protect Somalia’s border while our border is invaded by MILLIONS of illegals who are a danger to America,’ she added. ‘These people hate America and they’re so emboldened by the Democrats’ disdain for our country, they’re not even trying to hide it anymore.’
Oamr said in her speech that ‘the US government will only do what Somalians in the U.S. tell them to do. They will do what we want and nothing else.’
‘They must follow our orders and that is how we will safeguard the interest of Somalia,’ she adds. ‘We Somalians must have the confidence in ourselves that we call the shots in the U.S.’
‘Together we will protect the interests of Somalia.’
Americans for Prosperity Tennessee Ambassador Robby Starbuck accused Omar of ‘openly admitting allegiance to a foreign nation and to using her position in government to put that foreign nation first.’
‘This is treason,’ he declared. ‘Ilhan Omar is an agent for Somalia. It’s all out in the open. She should be removed from Congress at the very least. Absolutely insane.’
This isn’t the first time calls have ensued to remove Omar from her position in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Omar’s previous anti-Semitic remarks as well as her demanding Israel stop defending itself against Hamas terrorists in Gaza have led to calls from Republicans that she be removed from Congress and sparked censure resolutions from colleagues.
She is part of the progressive ‘squad’ of lawmakers, which includes the likes of Reps. Alexandria Ocasi-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rsahida Tlaib, who is Palestinian-American.
