It’s been a long week for Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar—first, she was told by the president to “go back” to her home country of Somalia rather than criticize his policies, and then she faced chants of “send her back” from the crowd at one of Trump’s rallies. Still, none of that seemed to dampen her spirits as she returned home to Minnesota on Thursday. A crowd of nearly 100 supporters greeted her with chants of “welcome home, Ilhan” in a touching display of solidarity.
Shortly after her flight, Rep. Omar told her supporters, “The reality is everybody talks about how [Trump] is threatened because we criticize him. But the reality is he is threatened because we are inspiring people to dream about a country that recognizes our dignity and our humanity.”
The love kept pouring in throughout the evening, when more supporters joined Rep. Omar at a healthcare town hall in south Minneapolis.
The show of support seems to already be getting under Trump’s skin. Thursday, he buckled to media pressure and began to distance himself from the chants at his rallies, first claiming that he had tried to stop the chant—and then doubling down, claiming there was nothing wrong with the chant to begin with.
Friday morning, he attacked her on Twitter, calling the videos of her homecoming “staged” and complaining about the media’s focus on his racist comments throughout the week. He even introduced a new nickname for her, “Foul Mouthed Omar”—it’s unclear if this is a reference to her repeating his own quotes verbatim earlier in the week, or if he has confused her with Rep. Tlaib.
In a quote from MPR News, Rep. Omar described Trump’s reactions throughout the week: “His nightmare is seeing the beautiful mosaic fabric of our country welcome someone like me as their member of Congress. We are going to continue being a nightmare to this president because his policies are a nightmare to us.”