Ilhan Omar hits out at Trump for doing 'literally what Somali dictators used to do'

All members of ‘The Squad’ have either won or are on way to re-election

Ilhan Omar was born in Somalia and became a US citizen in 2000 (Getty Images)

As Donald Trump attempted to claim victory early on Wednesday morning, long before the final results had been given, Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar hit out at the president, stating that he is doing exactly what “Somali dictators used to do".

“The irony of worrying about people turning America into Somalia, while allowing Trump to do literally what Somali dictators used to do. Wake up, he is destroying everything that sets up apart. We send election observers into other countries, we shouldn’t need ours monitored,” tweeted Ms Omar, who was born in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.

Along with her family, Ms Omar came to the US as an asylum seeker and became a citizen in 2000 when she was 17.

Ms Omar’s tweet was in reaction to the president’s early Wednesday morning statement claiming victory – something that has been criticised by allies and opponents alike while sparking a social media backlash via the hashtag “CountEveryVote”.  

During the 2020 election campaign, Ms Omar and the other three Democratic congresswomen collectively known as The Squad – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib – were often the target of the president’s attacks.  

In September, the president had launched a thinly-veiled racist diatribe at Ms Omar, saying: “She’s telling us how to run our country. How did they do it where you came from?”  

In July 2019, Mr Trump in a tweet had said that he didn’t “believe the four congresswomen are capable of loving our country”, referring to The Squad, adding that “they are destroying the Democrat party”.

But despite the frequent attacks, the four freshman Democratic congresswomen have all either won re-election or are expected to do so while gaining several new progressive allies in the House.

Follow the latest updates from the election results in our live blog.