Did Donald Trump call Somali-americans garbage?

1. What was said, and how do outlets quote it

Contemporaneous coverage quotes Trump at a White House meeting saying the country would “go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” in comments explicitly tied to Somali migrants, and several outlets report he called Rep. Ilhan Omar and Somali migrants “garbage” in the same sequence of remarks (BBC ^[2]; NBC ^[1]; Fox News p1_s8). Reuters, CNN, PBS, The Guardian and the CBC independently reported variants of those remarks — including Trump saying Somalia “is considered by many to be the worst country on earth” and that “their country is no good for a reason” — giving consistent, cross‑platform corroboration of disparaging language directed at Somalis ^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]}.

2. Context: enforcement operations and the Minnesota community

Those comments emerged as federal immigration enforcement actions were reported in Minnesota’s Twin Cities — home to the largest Somali diaspora in the U.S. — and news reports link the timing of the rhetoric to a stepped‑up ICE operation that stoked fear among Somali Americans, many of whom are U.S. citizens and community leaders say could be wrongly swept up ^{[5] [3] [9]}. Coverage from PBS and CNN describes the comments as coinciding with “Operation Metro Surge” and a broader push by the administration to target Somali migrants following fraud allegations in Minnesota ^{[6] [3]}.

3. Reactions: officials, advocates and allied voices

Democratic lawmakers and civil‑rights groups called the remarks xenophobic and dangerous, warning they could incite violence or marginalize citizens, while Minnesota officials emphasized the risk of detaining American citizens who “look Somali” ^{[4] [7] [9]}. At the same time, the White House spokeswoman lauded the president for highlighting problems caused by “radical Somali migrants,” and some conservative outlets echoed the language or amplified the quote, demonstrating a partisan split in interpretation and amplification ^[4].

4. Why the distinction between ‘Somalis’ and ‘Somali‑Americans’ matters

Reporting often uses the shorthand “Somalis” to describe the target of Trump’s remarks; several outlets explicitly note that many people in the affected communities are American citizens and long‑time residents, which means the president’s language was understood by community leaders as targeting Somali‑Americans as well as recent migrants ^{[9] [3]}. Journalistic coverage therefore frames the insult not only as anti‑immigrant rhetoric but as an attack with domestic civil‑rights implications for citizens of Somali descent ^[6].

5. Alternative readings and limitations in the record

Some defenders argue the president was addressing criminal fraud and national security risks rather than denigrating an entire people; the White House statement framed his words as spotlighting “radical Somali migrants” ^[4]. The public record in these sources consists of quoted remarks and paraphrases published by multiple outlets; no single, verbatim government transcript is included in the supplied reporting here, but the consistency of direct quotes across Reuters, BBC, NBC, CNN and others forms a robust basis to conclude he did use “garbage” when referring to Somalis ^{[4] [2] [1] [5]}.

6. Bottom line

Based on contemporaneous reporting from multiple mainstream news organizations, President Trump did call Somalis — and explicitly linked language to Somali migrants and Rep. Ilhan Omar — “garbage” or used the closely equivalent phrase “keep taking in garbage into our country,” and those remarks were widely reported to have coincided with an intensified federal enforcement operation in Minnesota ^{[1] [2] [5]}.