Ilhan Omar Goes Viral For Her Response To Question About Marrying Her Brother

Representative Ilhan Omar is going viral for her response to Donald Trump repeating claims that she married her brother.

The Minnesota Democrat, who became the first Somali-American and one of the first Muslims to be elected to Congress, hit back at the administration on social media.

In a rant about Somali migrants on Truth Social on Thanksgiving, Trump targeted Omar and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Trump described Omar as the “worst” congresswoman in the U.S. and said she was “always wrapped in her swaddling hijab.”

He added that she “probably came into the U.S.A. illegally in that you are not allowed to marry your brother,” going on to say she “does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how ‘badly’ she is treated.”

Then in the White House on Tuesday, Trump again went on a rant about Omar and described her as “incompetent” and a “real terrible person,” as well as branding her and other Somali migrants as “garbage.”

Sharing a clip of those comments, Omar wrote on X, “His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”

The official White House Rapid Response account shared Omar’s tweet, writing, “Why did you marry your brother?”

Omar responded, “I didn’t, but is your President a pedophile?” The quip has been viewed over 12 million times.

The allegation relates to Omar’s previous marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, with right-wing politicians and influencers claiming she married him so he could obtain papers, and that they are siblings.

The claim that Elmi is Omar’s biological brother goes back to at least 2016 and was originally spread via a Somali-American internet forum.

It soon appeared on right-wing websites and was later amplified by conservative political commentators.

The claim also lacks plausibility because Elmi was a British citizen who returned to England after their separation, and Omar entered the U.S. with all of her documented siblings.

Documents shared online by right-wing commentators purporting to show proof of the relationship are nothing more than a marriage license between two people.

Since rising to prominence, Omar has been dogged by unfounded rumors about her relationship, her family, and her religion.

She has been forced to deny the sibling allegation on multiple occasions, and even showed a Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter documents detailing her siblings.

While she declined to provide photocopies, the images showed her family's entry into the U.S. in 1995 after fleeing the Somali Civil War in 1991.

Those documents listed her father and siblings, with Omar the youngest, and they did not include Elmi.

Omar became a naturalized U.S. citizen as a minor after she and her siblings arrived in the U.S. with refugee status.

In a statement in 2016, Omar confirmed her marital history and said she had met Elmi, a British citizen, and married him in 2009.

“Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive,” Omar said.

The marriage came after her relationship with Ahmed Hirsi, with whom she had two children at the time, and they separated in 2008.

Omar and Elmi separated in 2011, and he moved back to England. She rekindled her relationship with Hirsi, going on to welcome another child together and marry in 2018.

That relationship ended one year later in 2019, with Omar filing for divorce and citing “irretrievable breakdown of the marriage relationship.”

In a statement released at the time, Omar’s attorney said that years of “speculation and innuendo from political opponents and the media” had “taken a significant toll on Ilhan, Ahmed, and their three children.”

Trump’s latest comments come as the Somali community in Minnesota has been at the center of a series of criminal prosecutions this year tied to large alleged fraud schemes.

Federal prosecutors say the cases include the Feeding Our Future pandemic-era school-meals fraud and other welfare and Medicaid fraud investigations.

Dozens of people have been charged or have pleaded guilty in those prosecutions, and several defendants have been convicted and sentenced. Many of them are of Somali descent.

The Treasury Department, led by Secretary Scott Bessent, said it will open a review to determine whether tax dollars from Minnesota public-assistance programs may have been diverted to Al-Shabaab, a U.S.-designated terrorist group based in Somalia.

ICE enforcement activity is now expected to ramp up in Minnesota after Trump ended certain deportation protections for Somali immigrants and said he did not want them in the U.S.