Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar pushed back Sunday against President Donald Trump’s claim that Somali refugees are “completely taking over” the state, after Trump renewed criticism of Walz in a social media post during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Walz said that being attacked by Trump had become “a badge of honor” for him. Trump had posted on Thanksgiving Eve that “the refugee burden” was the primary cause of social problems in the United States, singling out Minnesota and its Somali population.
Trump claimed on Truth Social that “hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota” and alleged that “Somalian gangs” were roaming the streets while residents stayed inside out of fear. He also used an offensive insult to refer to Walz and revived attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar, questioning her faith and falsely suggesting she may have entered the country illegally.
Walz told NBC that such language reflects what he sees as Trump’s pattern of normalizing hateful rhetoric. “Kids in school know better than to use that word. We fought for three decades to remove that language from our classrooms,” Walz said. “This is what Donald Trump has done. He promotes this kind of hateful behavior to distract from his own incompetence.”
Democrats widely condemned Trump’s use of an offensive slur. One Republican state lawmaker in Indiana even withdrew support for a GOP redistricting plan in protest.
White House doubles down on immigration crackdown
Trump has intensified his immigration policy following a fatal shooting in Washington that left one National Guard member dead and another critically injured. The suspect was identified as an Afghan national who entered the United States in 2021 after the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Trump responded by promising to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries.”
In a separate interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Klobuchar accused Trump of intentionally trying to sow division. She argued that the president took a tragic crime in Washington and used it to target an entire group of people.
“Every state struggles with crime,” Klobuchar said. “But he took a horrific case and then jumped two thousand four hundred miles away to Somalia to blame an entire community.”
Walz already facing friction with the Trump administration
Walz, who ran on the 2024 Democratic ticket with Kamala Harris, has been a frequent target of the Trump administration. The Justice Department has sued Minnesota and launched investigations involving allegations of hiring discrimination.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors have charged dozens of Somali Americans in a large fraud case tied to the state’s social services system. Minnesota is home to nearly eighty thousand Somali Americans.
An account claiming to represent more than four hundred eighty employees in the Minnesota Department of Human Services issued a statement Sunday accusing Walz of failing vulnerable residents and allowing inequities within state programs.
Walz said anyone involved in fraud would be held accountable but rejected attempts to blame Minnesota’s entire Somali community.
“Those individuals who committed crimes will go to jail,” Walz said. “But demonizing an entire community because of a few people is lazy and unfair.”