Somali Americans confront Trump’s attacks by trolling MAGA

With rage bait declared s word of the year Somali Americans have fittingly responded to Donald Trump s latest wave of xenophobic attacks not with fear but with something far more subversive Humor Online satire memes artificial intelligence-generated folklore and parody Bible verses have become the area s preferred medium of resistance The effect has been to turn the president s inflammatory rhetoric into a mirror that reflects just how ridiculous and brittle MAGA s nationalist states really are Last week Trump unleashed a withering tirade against Somali immigrants targeting the large group in Minnesota which has the largest Somali population of any state in America The attacks were particularly vicious even for him From the Oval Office flanked by Cabinet authorities the president declared that Somalia wasn t even a nation and that Somali immigrants contribute nothing Taking them he argued amounted to bringing garbage into the U S These Somalians have taken billions of dollars out of our country he announced They have destroyed Minnesota Trump s comments were made a minimal days after the New York Times released certain Somalis living in Minnesota had orchestrated a fraud scheme that according to federal prosecutors stole more than billion in taxpayers money The welfare scam was first revealed in with prosecutors calling it the largest pandemic fraud in the United States Among the operations which targeted social programs in the North Star State was a million scheme involving the nonprofit group Feeding Our Future Five people were convicted in the affair in for misusing funds intended to feed children during the COVID- pandemic Of the people charged in connection with the scheme are of Somali descent Right-wing media has speculated that fraudsters sent money to the Somalia-based and al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group Al-Shabaab Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Dr Mehmet Oz who heads the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services have since broadcasted two separate federal probes into the fraud Instead of treating the matter as what it was a criminal prosecution against specific individuals Trump and his administration have framed it as a moral indictment of an entire ethnic society casting Minnesota s Somali population as a contagion undermining both the state and the country from within Instead of treating the affair as what it was a criminal prosecution against specific individuals Trump and his administration have framed it as a moral indictment of an entire ethnic locality casting Minnesota s Somali population as a contagion undermining both the state and the country from within Federal leadership began targeted immigration enforcement in Minneapolis and St Paul aimed at the more than residents of Somali descent of whom are U S citizens Fifty-eight percent of Minnesotans of Somali descent were born in the U S The move suggests that labeling a public garbage had overridden legitimate precaution priorities The administration s actions and rhetoric were subjects on the Sunday political television shows Dana Bash co-host of CNN s State of the Union solicited frontier czar Tom Homan a question about Trump s xenophobic attacks that cut to the chase Is that the real reason this operation is happening in the Somali locality Homan defended the president without answering the question saying he was not aware what the president was thinking but added I agree with what he s doing On CBS s Face the Nation Margaret Brennan interviewed Rep Ilhan Omar D-Minn who is of Somali descent and was specifically singled out as garbage by Trump Related Rage bait as Word of the Year It s a reason for hope It s disgusting it s entirely disgusting Omar reported These are Americans that he is calling garbage I think it s also really significant for us to remember that this kind of hateful rhetoric and this level of dehumanizing can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president The congresswoman s comments on safety follow concerns she raised in a Dec New York Times op-ed in which she alleged that every time Trump targets her there is an immediate spike in death threats against her family and staff Trump Omar disclosed is exhibiting an unhealthy obsession on the Somali locality and an unhealthy and creepy obsession on me She also called out White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller who is widely credited as the architect the Trump administration s the bulk draconian immigration policies likening his rhetoric to the language Nazis used against German Jews In response Miller noted on X that the entire Somali refugee venture is predicated on a lie Destroying your own country does not give you the right to become a citizen in ours His wife Katie also felt compelled to weigh in posting that every TV appearance by Omar increases assistance for deporting all Somalis The congresswoman also triggered a response from the official account of the House Committee on the Judiciary chaired by Republican Rep Jim Jordan of Ohio insinuating that because Miller is Jewish her comments were antisemitic Want more sharp takes on politics Sign up for our free newsletter Standing Room Only written by Amanda Marcotte now also a weekly show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts Elsewhere on social media the Somali American public turned to satire On X users began posting elaborate folklore claiming that Somali sailors discovered Minnesota thousands of years ago naming it Minnadishu the twin of Mogadishu Others created AI-generated images of Somali founders planting flags on the shores of Lake Superior Chosen crafted faux-biblical verses like Whoever harms Somalis will bring harm onto himself Genesis and If you bless the Somali people God will bless you Genesis On TikTok creators visited museum exhibits to claim This is one of the ships that our Somali ancestors used to migrate to explore the state of Minnesota years ago Numerous MAGA supporters responded by sincerely fact-checking the jokes pointing out that Minnesota became a state in the s or that the verses weren t real inadvertently feeding the humor Trump s close adviser Laura Loomer a well known conspiracy theorist also appeared to take the satire at face value WE ARE GOING TO LOSE THE MIDTERMS AND OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY WILL BE FLOODED WITH ISLAMIC PROPAGANDA she warned We need your help to stay independent Subscribe in the current era to backing Sophia Tesfaye s commentary But the MAGA influencers were too late for the Somali American society Humorous responses to rage bait which depends on eliciting defensiveness that can be fed back into the outrage machine robs it of oxygen Trump s attacks were meant to provoke panic Refusing to play the role assigned to them Somali Americans flipped the power dynamic by going for the punchline It s a reminder that when someone tries to dehumanize you snickering in their face can be a declaration of personhood Humor can also provide a platform for solidarity Being scapegoated for political gain can be painful but laughter is a helpful balm a means of maintaining dignity when powerful figures like Donald Trump attempt to strip it away In this way the memes and satire are likely helping young Somalis in the U S reaffirm their Americanness But humor can only absorb so much Behind the jokes the fear remains real Somali population groups account people staying home from work while businesses worry they are being surveilled Even U S -born Somali Americans are carrying passports or IDs everywhere they go Rage bait may dominate American politics but Somali Americans have shown that it doesn t have to dominate the spirit Their jokes aren t merely distractions from the torment of Trump s rhetoric but are declarations that even in the face of dehumanization they refuse to disappear Read more about this topic Trump s foreign agenda vision Make Europe white again A desperate Trump puts his racism on full display Yes it s real Trump is collapsing Can the MAGA faithful save 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