"We've normalised this": Mehdi Hasan reacts after Trump claims Ilhan Omar should go to jail & criticizes Somalia

Journalist Mehdi Hasan has criticized US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks about Representative Ilhan Omar and Somalia.

Hasan took to X on October 21, 2026, calling out Trump for using a derogatory term to represent other countries and for how his language has been normalised. He wrote:

“The president called an African country a ‘sh-- house’ on camera. I remember the old days - his first term! - when calling African countries ‘sh-- holes’ was a huge controversy that had to be denied. We have normalized his Neo-Nazism now. Lucky us.”

On October 20, 2026, during an Oval Office event announcing a fraud whistleblower incentive program, a reporter asked Trump whether issues with Omar’s age on immigration records could lead to her deportation. Trump replied that she “could be” deported and “could also go to jail.”

Continue to read for more details.

What did Trump say about Rep. Ilhan Omar during his recent Oval Office meeting?

During a recent meeting at the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump criticized Representative Ilhan Omar and Somalia, which sparked reactions on social media.

He called for her imprisonment or deportation amidst a federal immigration and citizenship probe. He called her “sick” and a “dishonest person” who hates the U.S. Referring to Somalia, during his Oval Office interaction, Trump added that Omar comes from a country that is “not even a country.”

Trump’s verbal attack on Somalia, which includes calling it “garbage,” labelling it a failed state, and demanding Omar face jail time or deportation, has drawn condemnation from Omar, local Minnesota officials, civil rights groups, and international voices. It also drew praise from Trump supporters.

Omar called Trump’s statements “vile,” “bigoted, xenophobic, Islamophobic,” and “fascism,” dismissing the administration's actions and fraud allegations as a “ludicrous, partisan investigation.”

A user wrote on X:

“I hope the next Dem president takes a hard look at your wife's immigration documents too.”

Another person chimed in:

“His wife can’t even speak proper English, and he’s talking about stripping Ilhan Omar of her citizenship! What a desperate lunatic.”

A third person said:

“Yes. She ought to. She can take her Somali pirate skills back to Somalia.”

Trump’s remarks came after federal authorities carried out an investigation at Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C. home.

According to a report in The Washington Post, the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) executed the court-authorized search warrant, seizing items including her phone, computers, notebooks, and a passport.

Investigators examined historical documentation related to Omar’s arrival in the U.S. from Somalia, including whether her family misrepresented her age or background during 1990s immigration and asylum filings.

According to a report in The New York Post, the probe revives decade-old claims regarding Ilhan Omar’s 2009 marriage, with prosecutors reportedly gathering DNA evidence to examine past relationships.

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However, Ilhan Omar has denied all allegations of immigration fraud following a federal Homeland Security search of her Washington home and criticism from Trump. Her attorneys reportedly said that there was “no legitimate basis” to challenge her citizenship status and demanded the return of seized property.

Omar was born Ilham Abdullahi Omar on October 4, 1982, in Mogadishu, Somalia. She is a Somali-American who fled the Somali Civil War as a child in 1991. After spending four years in a refugee camp in Kenya, she immigrated to the US in 1995 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

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