President Donald Trump lashed out at Rep. Ilhan Omar after learning she was attacked with a syringe during a town hall, accusing the Minnesota congresswoman without evidence of staging the incident.
“I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud,” Trump told ABC News in a phone interview. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”
Omar, a Somali-American and regular target of Trump, was sprayed with an unknown liquid by a man at a town hall event in Minneapolis late on Jan. 27. The man rushed Omar and doused her torso with the substance as she called for ICE to be abolished and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be impeached. The man shouted something toward Omar, but it was unclear what was said.
Police identified the man who attacked Omar as 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak and arrested him on assault charges, according to Minneapolis Police Department spokesman Trevor Folke. Law enforcement officials have cited no evidence to support Trump’s claim that Omar had herself sprayed.
“I haven’t seen it,” Trump said of video of the attack. “No, no. I hope I don’t have to bother.”
Omar’s congressional office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s remarks.
Omar, who was not injured in the attack, vowed to continue the meeting as people begged her to stop to get help. “Please don’t let them have the show,” said Omar, asking for a napkin. “We will continue … They are not going to get away with this.”
A man shouts at U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) after spraying her, during a town hall meeting days after a man identified as Alex Pretti was fatally shot by federal immigration agents trying to detain him, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Trump has levied verbal attacks and insults toward Omar for years, but he’s ramped up his rhetoric in recent weeks after revelations of a massive fraud scheme involving state and federal welfare assistance programs tied primarily to a group of Somali immigrants.
Hours before the attack, Trump criticized Omar in a speech in Clive, Iowa. “They have to show that they can love our country,” Trump said, referring to immigrants. “They have to be proud, not like Ilhan Omar.”
Trump has mocked Omar for wearing her “little turban,” called her native Somalia “filthy, dirty, disgusting, (and) ridden with crime” and said she does “nothing but b—-.” In a Jan. 18 post on Truth Social, Trump said Omar should “should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia.”
Trump has questioned how Omar, a U.S. citizen since 2000, accumulated her wealth, announcing this week a Justice Department investigation into the matter. According to a financial disclosure filed with Congress, Omar’s net worth skyrocketed in 2025 as the lawmaker posted $6 million to $30 million in income through her spouse’s stake in a California winery and a venture capital firm.
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