WH mocks Ilhan Omar with Trump's McDonald's drive-thru photo, suggests she can return to Somalia

WASHINGTON, DC: The Ilhan Omar story took another turn this week as the White House publicly responded to her remarks with a pointed image and messaging.

The exchange spotlights ongoing tensions between the Minnesota congresswoman and the Donald Trump administration over remarks about deportation and her place in the United States.

White House responds to Ilhan Omar’s remarks

On Monday, November 10, the White House took to X (formerly Twitter) to share an image of President Donald Trump waving goodbye through a McDonald’s drive‑thru window. 

The image posted by the White House was taken during Trump’s October 2024 campaign stop in Pennsylvania at a McDonald’s where he worked at a fry station.

The post responded to a video clip of Omar, originally aired on 'The Dean Obeidallah Show' in October, in which she said, “I have no worry, I don’t know how they’d take away my citizenship and like deport me.”

In the clip, she added, “But I don’t even know like why that’s such a scary threat. Like I’m not the eight‑year‑old who escaped war anymore. I’m grown, my kids are grown. Like I could go live wherever I want.” 

Ilhan Omar’s background and feud with Trump

Ilhan Omar was born in Somalia. In 1991, her family evacuated Somalia and headed to a refugee camp in Kenya during the Somali Civil War.

The US eventually granted her family asylum, and they moved to Arlington, Virginia, in 1995 before relocating to Minneapolis in 1997. She became a US citizen in 2000. 

Omar was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2018, after serving two years in Minnesota’s State House of Representatives. She became the first Somali‐American woman and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress. 

Ilhan Omar looks on during a news conference on reintroducing the Neighbors Not Enemies Act on Capitol Hill on January 22, 2025, in Washington, DC (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Trump has previously suggested that Omar should return to Somalia. On November 1, he posted on Truth Social, “She should go back!” accompanied by a video of Omar speaking Somali.

He also told reporters in September that Somalia wasn’t interested in Omar returning. Trump said, “You know, I met the head of Somalia, did you know that? I suggested that maybe he’d like to take her back, and he said, ‘I don’t want her.’"

Omar responded by calling the story fabricated. She said, “From denying Somalia had a president to making up a story, President Trump is a lying buffoon. No one should take this embarrassing fool seriously.”

Trump’s clashes with Omar date back to his first term, when he criticized her and other progressive members of "The Squad," suggesting they should go back to their “broken and crime-infested” countries.