Republican Forced to Answer How Many Somalis He Represents Are Garbage
Minnesota Republican Representative Tom Emmer was asked directly if he agreed with President Trump’s assessment that the thousands of Somali residents he represents are “garbage.” He couldn’t give a straight answer.
“Mr. Emmer, do you agree with President Trump that say[s] 5,000 Somali residents in your district in St. Cloud are garbage?” Migrant Insider’s Pablo Manríquez asked Emmer while he walked down a hallway.
The Republican majority whip offered a weak, political nonanswer.
“I think what President Trump has done is raise an issue that is something that we’ve been trying to raise for almost three years,” he replied. “The press refuse to cover things that are right in front of them—”
“Donald Trump said that the Somalis are garbage, that’s what I’m asking you about,” Manríquez replied.
“If you could let me finish, I’d love to answer your question,” Emmer said. “But apparently you wanna have an argument.”
“Well, it’s a yes or no.”
“Maybe you can find someone else that you can have the argument with. ‘Cause I’m tellin’ ya, not all Somalis are bad—”
“Thank you.”
“90 percent of the … crimes that have been charged are from the Somali community, and there’s nothing wrong, and nothing racist, about calling out crime.”
.@PabloReports: Do you agree with President Trump that Somali residents in your district are garbage?
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 16, 2025
Emmer: I think what President Trump has done is raise an issue…
PabloReports: Donald Trump said they are garbage, that’s what I’m asking you about [...] It’s a yes or no… pic.twitter.com/CsRO9MJlJS
There is no evidence that 90 percent of the crimes in Emmer’s district are committed by Somalis. Perhaps Emmer was trying to pivot to the scandal in Minnesota in which the state’s social services system was defrauded out of more than $1 billion in taxpayer dollars. Federal prosecutors allege that nearly all of the perpetrators came from Minnesota’s Somali community. So far, prosecutors have convicted 59 people. There are about 80,000 Somali Americans in Minnesota.
Trump did much more than just “call out crime.” He smeared an entire group of people simply based on their origin, something he’s made a career out of.
“When you look at what [Minnesota Governor Walz has] done with Somalia, which is barely a country … they have no anything, they just run around killing each other,” Trump said earlier this month. “I hear [Somalians] ripped off that state for billions of dollars … I don’t want ’em in our country, I’ll be honest with you. Somebody’ll say ‘Ooh that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want ’em in our country. Their country’s no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don’t want ’em in our country.”
“We’re gonna go the wrong way if we keep taking garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. Her friends are garbage.… When they come from hell, and they complain, and do nothing but bitch? We don’t want ’em in our country. Let ’em go back to where they came from and fix it.”