Trump renews attacks on Tim Walz and Ilhan Omar, calling them 'incompetent' and 'scammers' online

Ilhan Omar dismissed Donald Trump's claims, accusing him of deflecting from failures and fueling conspiracy theories against her
UPDATED JAN 31, 2026
President Donald Trump claimed that the Minnesota fraud topped $19 billion, accusing the Biden administration of ignoring the problem despite knowing about it (Getty Images)
President Donald Trump claimed that the Minnesota fraud topped $19 billion, accusing the Biden administration of ignoring the problem despite knowing about it (Getty Images)

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.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks during a mark up meeting with the House Budget Committee on Capitol Hill on May 16, 2025 in Washington, DC. Members of the Budget Committee met to consider House Republicans’ reconciliation bill, which includes U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed tax and spending cuts. The bill faced bipartisan opposition, with five Republican members of the House Budget Committee voting against it and supporting a motion for the committee to recess for the weekend. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Rep Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks during a markup meeting with the House Budget Committee on Capitol Hill on May 16, 2025, in Washington, DC (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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.



“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.



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.

Tim Walz signed an education finance bill mandating that all public and charter schools in Minnesota provide all students free access to menstrual products (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Tim Walz signed an education finance bill mandating that all public and charter schools in Minnesota provide all students free access to menstrual products (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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.

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