Omar faces renewed attacks from GOP, which some Dems say are of greater concern amid Trump’s return

WASHINGTON - Just weeks after President Donald Trump returned to the White House and vowed to aggressively crack down on immigration, a video went viral of Rep. Ilhan Omar speaking in Somali to a reporter about what Somali immigrants should know if they’re approached by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk quickly used the video, which Omar’s office says was edited to make it look like she was speaking at an event, to accuse her of “breaking the law,” and U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill, a freshman Republican from Texas, called on Omar, a native of Somalia who immigrated to the United States when she was 12 and became a U.S. citizen in 2000, to be deported. He then doubled down on his call in a fundraising email.

Omar is no stranger to critique from both sides. She and Trump have sparred publicly since his first presidency. The president has called her an “America-hating socialist” and led a campaign rally where supporters chanted “send her back.” Though he later said he disagreed with their calls, it hasn’t stopped him and other Republicans from questioning her allegiance to America.

But Democrats worry the latest attacks against Omar are more cause for concern as Trump’s second presidency unfolds at a time when he wields immense power over Washington with Republicans in control.

“During [Trump’s] first presidency, I don’t remember any of us being worried about our government,” Omar said in an interview. “I don’t remember us fearing our government as representatives of the people doing the work that we were elected to do.” But now, Omar said much of the discussion she has with her colleagues is about “‘how are you going to protect yourself? What are you doing?’”

Fellow progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently sought clarity from the U.S. Department of Justice on whether the agency was investigating her for informing her constituents, similarly to Omar, about how to respond to immigration officials.

Ocasio-Cortez thinks the threats against Omar need to be taken seriously.

“I think it is tremendously serious that this administration and the Republican majority is even considering trying to strip people’s citizenship away based on their political stances,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, another progressive Democrat, believes the right is more emboldened and the attacks against Omar are more “coordinated.” And they are taking their cues from Trump.

“[Trump] is more dangerous this time around. ... He is daily moving with harmful rhetoric and even more harmful policies, and with little impunity,” Pressley said.

Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs said Omar being a member of the progressive flank, critical of Israel and symbolizing “the other,” makes for a potent focus for opponents.

“Ilhan Omar already has kind of an image that the Republicans are trying to take advantage of,” Jacobs said. “That image is particularly strong among Republicans, so, when you see a Republican going after Ilhan Omar, it’s partly to charge up their base to appeal to Republican donors.”

Omar has also been sharply criticized by fellow Minnesotan Rep. Tom Emmer, the No. 3 Republican in the U.S. House, who recently called the congresswoman a “race baiting antisemite,” amid reports that the University of Minnesota was under investigation for antisemitism. It was not the first swipe Emmer has taken at her over the years.

When Trump came to Minnesota for a campaign event in May, Emmer said that if Omar was unhappy in the U.S. she should move somewhere else. After she said some Jewish students were “pro genocide,” following a visit to a student encampment protesting the war in Gaza, Emmer said the congresswoman “joined the likes of Hamas and Iran” in supporting them.

Omar said her and Emmer’s relationship wasn’t always that way. When she first arrived in Congress in 2019, they had a “perfectly fine” relationship, she said.

“Until he started to see that it would bolster his career and make him relevant if he aligned with the racists and the xenophobes,” Omar said, making strong allegations herself. “Emmer accusing me of everything he is, as an extremist who supports violent insurrectionists and assaults on our Constitution and the rule of law, is not surprising,” she said.

A spokesperson for Emmer pointed to another swipe the House majority whip made at Omar when asked to respond.

“It looks like she’s also facing a lot of push back from her own Democrat colleague, Rep. Marcy Kaptur. Tough scene!” said Casey Hood, Emmer spokesperson. Emmer had shared a video of Kaptur noting Elon Musk’s citizenship.

Attorney General Keith Ellison and other Democrats who support her believe Republican attacks against Omar are rooted in the fact that she’s a “woman, she’s Muslim, she wears hijab. She also happens to be very progressive in her politics,” Ellison, a fellow Muslim politician, said.

“This MAGA wave that we’re experiencing right now is fundamentally animated by the idea that only native born, white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Christians deserve to be Americans, and anybody who deviates from that norm ... there’s going to be all kinds of hostility thrown in them,” Ellison said.

But Alec Beck, the chair of the Republican Party in Omar’s district, points to the things she’s said over the years as the root of Republican frustrations with her. He disagrees with assertions it has anything to do with her race, religion or gender.

“If you look at the things she says without having any idea who she is, it’s still outrageous,” Beck said. “The automatic knee-jerk response that ‘you’re only saying this because I am Muslim or I am of a certain nationality, is getting really old, and it’s losing its effectiveness.”

Omar has faced criticism over the years for her remarks about Israel and America’s political support as well as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Her remarks about Israel led Republicans to oust her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2023.

“It’s impossible to look at the things she says, and not conclude that she’s antisemitic,” Beck said. Omar has apologized in the past for remarks that have been deemed antisemitic.

But Beck said he hopes people would “turn down the temperature just a little bit,” when asked about Gill’s calls for her deportation.

“There’s a problem with encouraging illegal aliens to invade our country and to evade our laws and violate our customs. That’s the problem,” Gill said in a brief interview on Capitol Hill about his calls. “I think that that’s something that should be an issue on the other side of the aisle. Unfortunately, it’s not.”

GOP Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina heads the House Republican campaign arm, said he did not know about Gill’s deportation calls, but he said both sides need to “tone it down a little.” Hudson pointed to a Democrat who called on Musk to return to his native South Africa as an example of Democrats also stirring controversy.

Minnesota Republican Rep. Pete Stauber said that though he doesn’t agree with most of what Omar says, she has a right to say what she wants.

“She’s a representative. She’s going to say what she’s going to say,” Stauber said.