Washington DC— President Donald Trump intensified his attacks on immigrants during a Cabinet meeting this week, repeatedly calling Somali immigrants in the United States “garbage” and declaring that he did not want them in the country. His remarks, delivered four times within seven seconds, marked another escalation in rhetoric that has defined much of his political career.
Trump, who has previously described Mexico as sending “rapists” across the border and referred to African nations as “s—hole countries,” ended the two-hour meeting with what appeared to be a prepared broadside. Addressing the estimated 260,000 Somali-origin residents in the U.S., he said, “We don’t want them in our country,” repeating the sentence five times as Cabinet members applauded. Vice President JD Vance pumped his fist, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised the comment on camera.
The moment offered a stark contrast to the country’s long-standing identity as a nation shaped by immigrants, even as its history includes exclusionary policies, racial discrimination and forced migration. Trump’s aggressive approach has revived long-standing questions about who gets to belong in America and on what terms.
Experts say the president has pushed language once considered fringe into the political mainstream. Carl Bon Tempo, a historian at the State University of New York at Albany, said Trump has “legitimated” rhetoric that many Americans once viewed as unacceptable.
Trump’s second term has brought sweeping restrictions across the immigration system. His order to end birthright citizenship—despite the 14th Amendment—now awaits a Supreme Court ruling. The administration has frozen most asylum processing, sharply reduced refugee admissions and suspended applications from 19 countries listed under the travel ban.
While immigration remains central to Trump’s political agenda, public approval has slipped. A November AP-NORC poll found that 42% of adults approved of his handling of the issue, down from roughly half earlier this year.
Research also suggests that Trump’s tone is significantly harsher than that of most Republican leaders. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examining 2,00,000 congressional speeches and 5,000 presidential statements from 1880 to 2020 found he was the first modern U.S. president to express immigration views more negative than the average member of his own party. The study predates his latest comments on Somali Americans.
During the Cabinet meeting, Trump escalated his attacks further, saying people of Somali descent “come from hell,” “contribute nothing,” and “do nothing but complain.” He also targeted Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, calling her and her associates “garbage.”
The remarks drew swift condemnation. In Mogadishu, resident Ibrahim Hassan Hajji said his perception of the U.S. had “changed dramatically,” adding that he no longer wished to travel there. Omar called the president’s fixation with her and Somali Americans “creepy and unhealthy.”
Trump’s comments carry global influence. Analysts note that as leader of the world’s largest economy, his words shape attitudes far beyond the U.S. “He has more impact than most,” said Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez, a civil rights law professor at Ohio State University. Trump’s rhetoric has parallels in political movements in Europe, including the United Kingdom’s post-Brexit hardening of migrant attitudes and long-standing anti-immigrant messaging from leaders such as Nigel Farage and Marine Le Pen.
In France, public insults targeting groups based on nationality or ethnicity are illegal, though heads of state are typically exempt. Trump, however, dismissed concerns about political correctness during the meeting, saying simply: “I don’t care. I don’t want them.”
