Trump’s posts on singing Somali schoolchildren stir anger in Minnesota

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For more than a year, US President Donald Trump has relentlessly attacked Minnesota’s Somali community in a series of xenophobic tirades.

For more than a year, US President Donald Trump has relentlessly attacked Minnesota’s Somali community in a series of xenophobic tirades.

PHOTO: DOUG MILLS/NYTIMES

Erica L. Green, Dylan Freedman

  • Trump shared a video of Somali American kindergartners singing, highlighting their hijabs, which angered Minnesota's Somali and Muslim communities as targeting innocent children.
  • Trump has a history of xenophobic attacks on Minnesota's Somali community, including disparaging immigrants and launching immigration crackdowns linked to welfare fraud.
  • The posts sparked widespread condemnation for promoting Islamophobia and racism, while his supporters responded with hateful, anti-Muslim messages, deepening community fears and division.

AI generated

WASHINGTON – The posts nearly slid by in US President Donald Trump’s chaotic social media feed this week, lost in a jumble of boasts about the economy and pictures of Washington landmarks dressed in their Fourth of July best.

But there they were, a video of Somali American kindergartners in blue caps and gowns during their promotion ceremony at their St. Paul, Minnesota, school, and again the same video punctuated by a comment from an anonymous right-wing account called “End Wokeness”: “Every girl is in a hijab... in kindergarten.” In the 14-second video, the children are singing an upbeat Somali educational song.

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