Staff Reports
Anyone tired of the soft, mealy-mouthed Washington class pretending that blunt talk about immigration is illegitimate will have enjoyed President Trump’s take-no-prisoners cabinet remarks this week, where he called out the Somali influx and singled out Rep. Ilhan Omar by name. He did not whisper around the issue: he told officials Somalis “contribute nothing” and that “their country stinks,” language that some will call crude but many working Americans will recognize as plain speech aimed at a real problem.
This eruption did not happen in a vacuum — it followed reporting about massive fraud and alleged theft from Minnesota programs and moves by the administration to increase enforcement in Minneapolis-St. Paul, home to the largest Somali community in the country. If prosecutors and investigators are uncovering schemes that prey on taxpayers and on vulnerable children, the president is right to demand answers and to insist that immigration policy reward contribution, not exploitation.
Liberals and much of the national media will call Trump’s words inflammatory and claim they paint entire communities with a broad brush, but there is a growing chorus of Americans demanding a federal government that protects citizens first. For decades the left has lectured about compassion while ignoring the perverse incentives of open-door refugee policies and the governance failures in jurisdictions that cannot or will not control fraud and lawlessness. Conservatives should stop apologizing for prioritizing the rule of law, American workers, and the taxpayers who fund social programs.
Rep. Ilhan Omar has been a preferred target of the president for some time, and he reminded the country that her narrative as a “refugee” does not immunize her from scrutiny when she is hostile to American institutions. Omar came to this country from Somalia and rose to national office by playing identity politics; if her rhetoric undermines American unity or defends bad actors, it is entirely fair game for critique. Americans are right to expect loyalty to the Constitution and the country from their elected officials, not perpetual grievance.
Not everyone in the Somali community agreed on the reaction — some leaders condemned the president’s words as insulting while others admitted the complaints reflected real governance and security issues back home. Local officials in Minneapolis warned that targeted enforcement risks civil rights problems and that the federal government must be careful; reasonable conservatives should acknowledge that welfare abuse and criminality among a minority can and should be dealt with without demonizing whole populations. Still, enforcing immigration laws and protecting citizens is not xenophobia, it is duty.
At the end of the day, Americans want leaders who will name problems and act, not timid technocrats who fear being called impolite. President Trump’s blunt rhetoric is raw, but it sits alongside real policy moves to end special protections and ramp up enforcement — actions that speak to restoring sovereignty and fairness for citizens. If the elite media want to be outraged, let them; the rest of the country will keep demanding secure borders, accountability for fraud, and politicians who put the national interest first.
