The ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) camp lost all calm after witnessing Minnesota Rep Ilhan Omar’s verbal attack on American President Donald Trump during his first State of Union address on Tuesday, February 24 (US time).

Social media was instantly flooded with a flurry of “deport Ilhan Omar” comments after the Somali-American Democratic politician was seen shouting “You killed Americans” at Trump.

Her remarks, in turn, accounted for a sharp response as the Republican president continued blasting Democrats for blocking the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) funding over the immigration debate. Trump repeatedly took scathing swipes at the Left throughout his State of the Union speech over one thing or the other.

Here’s what happened.

Trump vs Ilhan Omar at the State of the Union

Although Democrats have maintained their strategy of protesting Trump silently instead of raising uproar with blatant confrontation for the past few weeks, a different picture unfolded at the State of the Union event on Tuesday.

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Midway through Trump’s speech, the US president viciously took aim at Democrats, accusing them of endangering Americans by blocking a bill to fund the DHS, a move that would compel the agency to resume its partial shutdown.

As Trump continued to criticise the Left, Progressive Reps Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar couldn’t help but rise from their seats and shout out, “You killed Americans!” The heated development even brought back the focus onto the Epstein Files, as the Democrats pushed the president to release all documents connected to the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

As Trump hurled insults at the Democrats, raising comments like “You should be ashamed yourselves” and “These people are crazy,” the fierce back-and-forth between him an Omar escalated. The Republican side of the room erupted into a clamorous applause, while most Democrats maintained their stone-faced and stoic expressions during the address.

On one occasion Omar called Trump a “liar,” as he targeted her by reiterating the claim, “Somali pirates ransacked Minnesota” through “bribery corruption and lawlessness.”

Notably, as Trump continued to put the immigration agenda on blast during his State of the Union, he even asked everyone who agreed it was the government’s duty to protect American citizens, not illegal immigrants, to stand up. Not a single Democrat rose from their seat.

While the MAGA leader criticised Democratic-led cities, saying they “protect the criminals and enact serious penalties to public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens, in many cases drug lords, murderers all over our country,” Rep Rashida Tlaib challenged him yet again.

At one point, she yelled, “Alex wasn’t a criminal,” adding to the argument raised by Omar in reference to the deaths of Minneapolis citizens Nicole Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents.

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Ilhan Omar, Minneapolis and Trump’s immigration crackdown

Rep Omar has especially emerged as a strong voice out of Minnesota as the Trump administration continues to target the Somali community in the state. According to the Associated Press, the Minneapolis-St Paul area is home to about 84,000 people of Somali descent, making up for nearly a third of Somalis in the US. Minneapolis has especially also grabbed major headlines in the recent past over the controversial fatal shootings of Preeti and Good. 

On Tuesday, Omar brought also out a few hard-to-ignore guests, who had been”traumatised” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to Trump’ SOTU event. Three of the four people invited were: Mubashir Hussen, a US citizen detained by ICE in Minneapolis; Aliya Rahman, a Bangladeshi American software engineer who was dragged from her vehicle by DHS agents and Chair of the Columbia Heights School Board Mary Granlund.

A naturalised US citizen, Omar fled Somalia at the age of 8 as a civil war ravaged the country.

As part of his ‘America First’ agenda, Trump has endlessly hit it out against the Somali community over fraud accusations. The diaspora community has been under scrutiny following a massive pandemic-era fraud scheme that stole millions of dollars from a federally funded nutrition program. In December, a viral video about an alleged fraud at Somali-run day care centres further fuelled Trump’s response, ultimately prompting severe immigration raids in Minneapolis. 

MAGA raises ‘deport Ilhan Omar’ calls on X

Countless Trump supporters joined the president’s hate train for her by berating the Somalia-born US representative on X.

A “Mr Star Spangled MAGA” user particularly fanned the fire surrounding all the hate for Omar. “Reply to this post with Deport Ilhan Omar,” he tweeted on Tuesday. “That’s it. Get it trending to #1.”

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American social media personality David Freeman, aka Gunther Eagleman, who is a prominent MAGA voice on X, said: “There is a sad little pirate in the audience that doesn’t like Trump talking about her brother/husbands in a mean way. Too bad. DEPORT ILHAN OMAR RP IF YOU AGREE.”

Eric Daugherty, yet another internet personality famous for his pro-Trump and staunch far-right rhetoric online, wrote, “HOLY SMOKES. President Trump has Ilhan Omar GOING BERSERK after calling out Somalis and illegal aliens, she’s yelling at the TOP OF HER LUNGS right now. “You should be ashamed of yourself!” OMAR: *Keeps yelling* Deport her from the CHAMBER, deport her FROM AMERICA!”

In another post, he added, “ILHAN OMAR is on the verge of TEARS right now as President Trump eviscerates her 3rd world homeland of Somalia for exporting their barbarians to the United States. DEPORT HER NOW!”

Political commentator and columnist Dustin Grage tweeted: Ilhan Omar is a disgrace to Minnesota. Denaturalise and deport her.”

Hours before the State of the Union, Texas journalist Sara Gonzales wrote in a post, “You can take the pirate outta Somalia but you can’t take Somalia outta the pirate. DEPORT!”

But that’s not all, even lawmakers stirred the racket further. Congressman Randy Fine re-posted one of Omar’s posts, and wrote on X, “You should be deported.”