Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: SOMALIS reacted with outrage on December 3 to Donald Trump’s derogatory remarks about them and their country, although a few also said the U.S. president had spoken unpalatable truths. In comments made during a cabinet meeting on December 2, Trump described Somalis as “garbage” and said “we don’t want them in our country”.
Abdisalan Omar, an elder in central Somalia, said he was shocked by Trump’s crude language. “The world should respond,” he said. “Presidents who speak in such a way cannot serve the U.S. and the world.”
Trump has stepped up attacks on people in the U.S. who come from Somalia since last week’s shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, which led him to promise to freeze migration from “third-world countries”. An Afghan national has been charged with murder in the Washington shootings. He has pleaded not guilty. Somalia’s Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre struck a more diplomatic note while addressing an innovation summit in Mogadishu, noting that Trump had also insulted other nations.
