Minnesota Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar, a refugee from Somalia, believes that the United States of America, the nation where her family fled, is becoming one of the worst countries in the world, yet she chooses to stay.
In a recent interview with Democracy Now, Omar pointed out that U.S. troops were sent to put down protests in Los Angeles during the same week the Trump administration held a massive military parade to celebrate 250 years of the U.S. Army.
“Can you imagine that image that is going to be coming out of our country? I mean, I grew up in a dictatorship, and I don’t even remember ever witnessing anything like that,” the representative said, referring to Somalia.
“To have a democracy, a beacon of hope for the world, to now be turned into one of the, you know, one of the worst countries, where the military are in our streets without any regard for people’s constitutional rights, while our president’s spending millions of dollars propping himself up like a failed dictator with a military parade — it is really shocking,” she said.
“It should be a wake-up call for all Americans to say, ‘This is not the country we were born in. It’s not the country we believe in. This is not the country our Founding Fathers imagined, and this is not the country that is supported by our Constitution, our ideals, our values,’” the woman, who was not actually born in the United States, said.
“And we should all collectively be out in the streets, rejecting what is taking place this week,” she said.
“I think the person who is in the process of destroying our country should look in the mirror and that’s Trump,” she said. “And notice that he is the one that has hatred for the values that we have here in America and everything that we have built. The reality is protest, dissent, is constitutionally protected that is everybody’s First Amendment right in this country.”
The Minnesota Democrat and Squad member faced immediate backlash on X for her comments.
“She wasn’t born here at all,” one X user said.
“The hyperbole here is appalling, made worse by her astounding ingratitude,” Fox News contributor Guy Benson said.
“[I]f people are seriously offended by a parade for the first time in decades, then go outside and touch some grass,” OutKick contributor David Hookstead said. “We have the greatest military on the planet, and we shouldn’t ever apologize for it. After all, our men died to try to protect innocent lives in Somalia. I guess that sacrifice just doesn’t matter to Congresswoman Omar.”