Trump renews attacks on Tim Walz and Ilhan Omar, calling them 'incompetent' and 'scammers' online
WASHINGTON, DC: President Trump on Saturday, January 31, sharpened his attacks on Rep Ilhan Omar and Minnesota Gov Tim Walz, tying both Democrats to the state’s reportedly sprawling welfare fraud scandal and accusing the Biden administration of ignoring the issue while it unfolded.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump claimed that the scale of fraud in Minnesota far exceeded earlier estimates and argued federal officials knowingly failed to intervene.
“The Theft and Fraud in Minnesota is far greater than the 19 Billion Dollars originally projected,” Trump wrote.
“The Biden Administration knew this fraud was happening and did absolutely nothing about it,” he added.
Trump uses incendiary language
The president singled out Omar in particularly inflammatory terms, reviving rhetoric he had used against her since her first election to Congress.
“Scammer Ilhan Omar and her absolutely terrible friends from Somalia should all be in jail right now or far worse, send them back to Somalia,” Trump wrote.
He also took aim at Walz, calling the governor “either the most corrupt government official in history, or the most incompetent.”
Trump added that “even a very low IQ person” should have recognized what was happening in Minnesota.
Ilhan Omar's rejection of claims
Ilhan Omar rejected the claims made by Trump over Minnesota fraud and even accused him of singling her out repeatedly.
“Sorry, Trump, your support is collapsing and you’re panicking,” Omar wrote Monday on X.
Sorry, Trump, your support is collapsing and you’re panicking.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 26, 2026
Right on cue, you’re deflecting from your failures with lies and conspiracy theories about me. Years of “investigations" have found nothing.
Get your goons out of Minnesota. https://t.co/OXYdRIcdHB
“Right on cue, you’re deflecting from your failures with lies and conspiracy theories about me. Years of ‘investigations’ have found nothing. Get your goons out of Minnesota,” she added.
Trump’s rhetoric followed previous incidents involving Omar, including a town hall attack in which a man sprayed an unknown substance on her.
Just spoke to Pres. Trump. I asked him if he had seen the video of Rep. Omar being attacked and sprayed by a substance.
— Rachel Scott (@rachelvscott) January 28, 2026
“No. I don't think about her. I think she's a fraud. I really don't think about that. She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her,” the president said.
I…
After the incident, Trump told ABC News that Omar “probably had herself sprayed,” calling her a “fraud.”
Tim Walz blames Trump’s rhetoric for rising threats
Walz has repeatedly defended Omar, arguing that Trump’s language fueled hostility toward her and Minnesota’s Somali community.
“This is the thing that there’s no tone,” Walz said on Wednesday. “The president constantly attacks Omar, attacks her citizenship, attacks the very decency of it and we’ve asked him time and time again to stop it. I don’t believe he’s capable of stopping it.”
The governor has been a frequent target of Trump since news broke of large-scale fraud cases tied to Minnesota welfare programs.
In response, the administration froze federal funding for child care providers in the state and deployed 2,000 federal officers as part of an expanded immigration enforcement operation.
Both Walz and Omar have defended Minnesota’s Somali community while condemning Trump’s language.
