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WASHINGTON: In a burst of anti-Somali and anti-Muslim rhetoric, President Donald Trump \u200bcast the Somali American community as a threat to Minnesota on Thursday, hours after he labeled Muslim US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed a radical extremist.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe once Great State of Minnesota is being taken over by Somali Immigrants. There is Violence, Murder, and Mayhem all over the State. The people of Minnesota must fight back,\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n
Trump urged authorities in Minnesota to ask for federal intervention.<\/p>\n
Civil rights advocates have criticized the Republican president\u2019s rhetoric toward minorities and immigrants, including when \u200che previously called \u200cSomalis \u201cgarbage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has in the past repeatedly invoked a \u200bscandal \u200cin Minnesota \u2060that \u200bdates to \u20602020 in which scores of people were accused of defrauding millions of dollars from a state-run, federally funded child nutrition program. Many of the defendants in that case were Somali Americans.<\/p>\n
In May, Aimee Bock, who is not a Somali immigrant and led the Minnesota non-profit group involved in the scandal, was sentenced to 41 years in prison after she was convicted last year of being the ringleader of the scheme.<\/p>\n
The president has \u2060used the fraud case as part of his rationale for \u200ctargeting Minnesota, led by Democrats, for an aggressive \u200csurge in arresting and deporting immigrants earlier this year and \u200bfor moves aimed at restricting social \u200cservice programs in the state, including Medicare and childcare.<\/p>\n
Rights groups have accused Trump \u200cof using isolated fraud cases as an excuse to collectively target immigrant communities and criticized his approach to fraud, citing his pardonsof those who have faced fraud convictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomali Minnesotans are our neighbors. They are part of Minnesota. And the Minnesota I know and love is so \u200cmuch better than this bigotry,\u201d Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in response to Trump\u2019s post.<\/p>\n
In another post late on Wednesday, \u2060Trump called El-Sayed, \u2060a Muslim and the Democratic candidate for US Senate from Michigan, a \u201cRADICAL Extremist\u201d and \u201cTerrorist Sympathizer\u201d while offering support for the Republican candidate, Mike Rogers.<\/p>\n
Democrats said Trump\u2019s rhetoric sought to distract voters from the impact of his policies heading into the November US midterm elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us at the pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor\u2019s office,\u201d El-Sayed, who has faced anti-Muslim attacks from other Republicans, said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Michigan Democratic Party and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer cast Trump\u2019s rhetoric as desperate and racist.<\/p>\n
Trump has targeted minorities in his \u200brhetoric in the past as well, having \u200bpreviously spread false claims that Haitian immigrants in an Ohio town were eating pets and having used the term \u201cPalestinian\u201d as an insult.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n