Trump says Muslim lawmakers Omar, Tlaib should be removed from US after speech clash
By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Two Muslim Democrats, U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, should be “institutionalized” and sent back “where they came from,” President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, a day after he had a heated exchange with him during his State of the Union address.
During Trump’s speech on Tuesday, Tlaib, who is Palestinian American, and Omar, who is Somali American, criticized Trump while highlighting his administration’s harsh crackdown on immigrants and immigration enforcement actions.
Both Omar and Tlaib shouted at Trump during his speech, “You’re killing Americans,” with Omar calling him a “liar.”
In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said the two lawmakers were “crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally unstable and sick with bulging, bloodshot eyes who frankly look like they need to be hospitalized.”
“We must send them back to where they came from as quickly as possible,” Trump added. Both Omar and Tlaib are US citizens.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Trump’s rhetoric toward Tlaib and Omar “xenophobic” and “shameful.” Tlaib said on X that Trump’s comments showed he was “collapsed.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which advocates for Muslims, also said Trump’s comments were racist.
“It is racist and bigoted to suggest that two Muslim US lawmakers should be sent to the country of their birth or ancestors based on their criticism of the ICE shooting of Americans,” said CAIR Deputy National Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that members of the media had “smeared” the president as a racist.
Trump’s actions on immigration enforcement were criticized following two separate fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minnesota in January. At least eight people have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers since the beginning of 2026, following at least 31 deaths last year.
In his speech Tuesday, Trump repeated his accusation that Somali communities in the U.S. are committing fraud and claimed “Somali pirates” were plundering Minnesota. His administration had used allegations of fraud to deploy armed federal immigration agents in Minnesota.
Trump aimed his actions to combat fraud and improve homeland security.
Rights groups say the crackdown has created an environment of fear and that Trump is using isolated cases of fraud as a pretext to target immigrants. They also dismiss Trump’s ability to fight fraud, citing past pardons for those facing fraud convictions.
Trump was also recently criticized after he published a video on his social media account containing a racist depiction of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Kat Stafford and Aurora Ellis)
