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Ilhan Omar on Trump’s attacks on Somali-Americans – podcast

The congresswoman Ilhan Omar is no stranger to political attacks: she is a woman, she is a Democrat, she is black and she is an immigrant. All of which have made her a perfect target for the US president, Donald Trump. But even so, what happened last week felt different.

David Smith, the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, was among those watching Trump’s televised speech in Pennsylvania last week. He was shocked to see Trump revive a conspiracy theory about Omar marrying her brother to become a US citizen, and to hear him mock the hijab she wears.

Smith interviewed Omar and now tells Annie Kelly how she said it felt to be the subject of those barbs.

He explains the background to Trump’s criticisms of the Somali-American community: a news story about fraud cases concerning social services in Minnesota, where many of the people involved are of Somali origin or ancestry.

But, he says, there is another reason for the president’s attacks: “Trump could not resist the red meat for his base about immigration. And I think part of that is desperation – that he’s very unpopular right now, and he’s really losing the argument on affordability. So he’s lashing out.”