President Donald Trump couldn’t help but add a scoop of racism to Wednesday’s Oval Office press conference, which was meant to be about the auto industry.
A reporter asked Trump about recent comments by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who said he’s proud to have the largest Somali community in the U.S. — a community Trump reportedly plans to target.
“I wouldn’t be proud to have the largest Somalian― look at their nation,” Trump snapped before going on a hateful tirade. “Look how bad their nation is. It’s not even a nation. It’s just people walking around killing each other. These Somalians have taken billions of dollars out of our country. They have destroyed Minnesota.”
Trump’s remarks later grew even more bizarre. “You have to have people come in that are going to love our country, cherish our country, they want to kiss our country goodnight,” he said, perplexingly. “They talk about our country, we want them to pray for our country. This is not the people living in Minnesota.”
Trump has previously referred to Haiti and other countries with large Black and brown populations as “shithole” countries. During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump called Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) “garbage” while insulting her birthplace, Somalia.
