MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalis reacted with anger and disbelief Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump described Somalis as “garbage” and said “we don’t want them in our country,” remarks delivered during a cabinet meeting a day earlier that drew condemnation across Mogadishu and beyond.
Trump, who has a long record of inflammatory language, also said Somalis “just run around killing each other” and declared “their country stinks,” intensifying a wave of rhetoric he has aimed at immigrants following last week’s shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington. An Afghan national has been charged with murder in that case and has pleaded not guilty. Trump has used the incident to promise a freeze on migration from what he termed “third-world countries.”
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The comments struck a raw nerve in Somalia, where many said the words demeaned a people already grappling with conflict and poverty. “The world should respond,” said Abdisalan Omar, an elder in central Somalia. “Presidents who speak in such a way cannot serve the U.S. and the world.”
On Mogadishu’s streets, frustration was blended with weariness at being a political punching bag in U.S. debates. “In our culture, we do not use abusive language,” said Bule Ismail, a 45-year-old construction worker. “It is incumbent upon the U.S. and its people to take measures and to be angry with Trump first, then take Trump to a mental hospital for checkup.”
Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre urged restraint and perspective, noting that Trump has used harsh words for other countries, including Nigeria and South Africa. “There are things that do not need comment, we just leave and skip. It is better to ignore than to make his words look like an issue,” Barre said while addressing an innovation summit in the capital.
Trump’s latest remarks come on the heels of his announcement last month that he would terminate temporary deportation protections for Somalis living in Minnesota, alleging without evidence that “Somali gangs” were terrorizing the state. Local officials rejected that portrayal as false.
Somalia has endured decades of turmoil and remains locked in a grinding fight against al-Shabab, the al-Qaida-aligned group that has waged an insurgency for nearly two decades in an effort to topple the central government. Security gains remain fragile, and everyday life is often defined by economic hardship and the threat of violence.
For some Somalis, Trump’s broadside was less an assault on their identity than a crude indictment of a system they believe has failed them. “Trump said the truth but in unpleasant words,” said Mogadishu resident Samira Abdullahi, who said the government expropriated her land. “We have no government. Al Shabaab is looting and bombing all Somalis.”
The clash over Trump’s language underlines the human stakes of U.S. policy shifts that touch diaspora communities and their relatives back home. In Minnesota and other American cities, Somali immigrants and refugees have built significant communities over decades. In Somalia, many families depend on remittances and remain acutely sensitive to any rhetoric or policy that could constrict movement, legal protections or livelihoods.
Whether the controversy shifts U.S. policy is unclear. In Somalia’s capital, leaders counseled calm even as residents bristled at the insult. The immediate impact, however, is another round of global scrutiny for a nation still struggling to escape the shadow of conflict — and new uncertainty for Somalis whose lives bridge Mogadishu and the United States.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
