Representative Ilhan Omar says President Donald Trump is obsessed with her — and may be showing signs of dementia — after another round of public attacks that preceded a disturbing incident at one of her town halls.
Trump took repeated shots at the Minnesota congresswoman during a rally in Iowa on Tuesday, singling her out by name and attacking her background. Just hours later, Omar was sprayed with a foul-smelling liquid by a man at a town hall meeting where she had been criticizing the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Omar said the attacker was motivated by Trump’s immigration rhetoric and his fixation on Somali immigrants. “The man that attacked me was specifically upset that Trump’s order to deport Somalis was not yielding enough deportations of Somalis,” she said. “So he wanted to come and get the person he thought was protecting the Somalis. Well, we are protected by the Constitution.”
Omar said the threats and abuse she now faces are directly tied to Trump’s repeated vilification of her from the national stage. She noted that the danger she lives with today did not exist before Trump’s presidency. “I wouldn’t be where I am at today, having to pay for security, having the government think about providing me security, if Donald Trump wasn’t in office and if he wasn’t so obsessed with me,” she said.
She also pointed to the timing of Trump’s remarks, saying it was impossible to ignore the connection. “It is ironic that just last night he was on stage moments before I was attacked, talking about me,” Omar said. “And then when asked about my attack he said, ‘I don’t think about her.’”
Omar openly questioned Trump’s mental fitness after his denial. “Does he not remember? Is he suffering from dementia?” she asked. “How do you spend 20, 30 minutes on stage, obsessing over me, by name, multiple times, and then moments later say, ‘Ilhan Omar, I don’t think about her’?”
According to Omar, the volume of threats she receives has fluctuated sharply depending on who occupies the White House. She said the number of death threats against her “plummeted” during the Biden administration but has now surged again. She added that she currently receives “the most death threats of any member of Congress.”
“Every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community that I represent, my death threats skyrocket,” Omar said.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Somali immigrants, who make up a significant portion of Minneapolis’s population, calling them “garbage” and demanding that Omar — who was born in Somalia — be deported or imprisoned.
After the town hall attack, Trump dismissed the incident and suggested without evidence that Omar staged it herself. Asked by a reporter from ABC News whether he had seen video of the attack, Trump replied, “No. I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud. I really don’t think about that. She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”
Pressed again, Trump doubled down. “I haven’t seen it. No, no. I hope I don’t have to bother.”
