Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey fired back at President Donald Trump after being called a “fool” for supporting Somali immigrants in his city.
Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the Somali community in Minnesota over recent days with numerous attacks many critics have labeled as racist. In comments to reporters on Wednesday, Trump said Frey was a “fool” for being proud his city is home to the largest Somali population in the country.
“That beautiful state, it’s a hellhole right now. And the Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country, and all they do is complain, complain, complain,” Trump told reporters.
Frey responded to Trump’s comments on CNN’s “Erin Burnett Out Front” on Wednesday.
“Well, that’s neither clever nor is it right. Donald Trump seems to just spew out of his mouth whatever happens to come to mind in the moment,” Frey said.
He then defended Minneapolis as a “beautiful city,” adding that Somali Americans are “proud to call this extraordinary place home.” He also responded to Trump calling Somali immigrants “garbage.”
“It’s obviously disturbing that the president of the United States would use terms like garbage to talk about an entire community that are Americans. Somali Americans are Americans. They make Minneapolis a better place. And we’re proud to have these Americans in our city,” Frey said.
He then suggested Trump could be violating the Constitution if he targets a group of people “indiscriminately.”
“I think the other thing that we ought to look at is the fact that if they’re just indiscriminately going after people, due process is violated, habeas corpus is violated, the entire Constitution is in and of itself being thrown in a garbage.So, you want to use the term garbage, that’s exactly what Donald Trump is doing right now to the Constitution of the United States,” Frey said.
Earlier in the segment, he suggested that Americans are used to Trump making “unconstitutional” decisions.
“And to just go after a whole community indiscriminately, it’s unconstitutional. It’s flat out un-American. But, you know, I guess that’s what we’ve become accustomed to with Donald Trump,” he added.
The attacks on Somali Americans come after the City Journal, a conservative public policy magazine, reported that tax dollars from defrauded government programs were sent to Somalia and then landed in the hands of al Shabaab, an affiliate of al Qaeda and a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
Since then, Trump officials have amped up their rhetoric against Somali Americans, including against U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
