Rep. Ilhan Omar Says Trump's 'Boilerplate Xenophobia' Has Driven Threats to Her Life

Rep. Ilhan Omar said President Donald Trump's repeated attacks on her and on Somali Americans have directly fueled threats against her life, arguing that his rhetoric follows a familiar pattern of what she described as "boilerplate xenophobia" that escalates real-world danger.

In an interview with The Guardian, Omar said Trump's recent remarks at a rally in Pennsylvania—where he mocked her hijab, repeated a false claim that she married her brother, and told supporters she should be expelled from the country—were "vile" and reflected "a really unhealthy and creepy obsession."

Omar told The Guardian that there is "a clear correlation" between Trump's rhetoric and the level of threats she receives. "When you have the president using dehumanizing language every single day, we know that message gets to the worst humans possible in this country and that they then take action," she said before adding:

"We've had people incarcerated for threatening to kill me. We have people that are being prosecuted right now for threatening to kill me and so it is something that does stay in the back of our minds"

Omar said the pattern has been consistent across Trump's political career. The Minnesota Democrat noted that after she was elected to Congress in 2018, Trump's attacks coincided with a surge in death threats. "When [Joe] Biden was president, my death rates went to almost zero," Omar said. "Now they are back up." U.S. Capitol Police investigated 9,474 threats against members of Congress in 2024, more than double the number recorded in 2017.

Omar's comments build on recent public responses to Trump's statements. In a social media post last week she said the president was "obsessed" with her and accused him of "regurgitating bigoted lies" after he again told a crowd she should be removed from the country and referred to Somali immigrants as "garbage." She wrote that Trump was resorting to such attacks because he had "no economic policies to tout."

Omar, who came to the United States as a refugee from Somalia and became a citizen at 17, said Trump's rhetoric also puts Somali communities at risk amid stepped-up immigration enforcement. "I worry about those people finding someone who looks like me... and thinking it is me and harming them," she told the Guardian.

Despite the threats, Omar said she intends to continue her work in Congress and has no intention of being intimidated. "We will not let Mr. Trump intimidate or debilitate us," she wrote in her op-ed. "We are not afraid."