Somalis condemn Trump’s insults, though some say he spoke the ‘truth’

Somalis reacted with outrage on Wednesday to Donald Trump’s derogatory remarks about them and their country, although a few also said the U.S. president had spoken unpalatable truths.

In comments made during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump described Somalis as “garbage” and said “we don’t want them in our country”.

“They just run around killing each other,” said Trump, who has long used racist and sexist language. “Their country stinks.”

Abdisalan Omar, an elder in central Somalia, said he was shocked by Trump’s crude language.

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“The world should respond,” he said. “Presidents who speak in such a way cannot serve the U.S. and the world.”

Trump has stepped up attacks on people in the U.S. who come from Somalia since last week’s shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, which led him to promise to freeze migration from “third-world countries”.

An Afghan national has been charged with murder in the Washington shootings. He has pleaded not guilty.

“In our culture, we do not use abusive language,” Bule Ismail, a 45-year-old construction worker in the capital Mogadishu, told Reuters. “It is incumbent upon the U.S. and its people to take measures and to be angry with Trump first, then take Trump to a mental hospital for checkup.”

Somalia’s Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre struck a more diplomatic note while addressing an innovation summit in Mogadishu, noting that Trump had also insulted other nations.

“Trump has insulted many countries including Nigeria, South Africa. There are things that do not need comment, we just leave and skip. It is better to ignore than to make his words look like an issue,” he said.

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Trump said last month he was terminating temporary deportation protections for Somalis living in Minnesota, saying “Somali gangs” were terrorising the state. He did not offer evidence and local officials said his portrayal was untrue.

Somalia remains dogged by violence and poverty and is battling a militant Islamist group, al Shabaab, which is affiliated with al Qaeda and has been trying for nearly two decades to topple the country’s central government.

Taking Trump’s comments as primarily a criticism of their government, some Somalis on Wednesday applauded what they said was his honesty.

“Trump said the truth but in unpleasant words,” said Samira Abdullahi, a Mogadishu resident whose land was expropriated by the government. “We have no government. Al Shabaab is looting and bombing all Somalis.”

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