Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is hitting back at President Donald Trump’s repeated comments targeting the state’s Somali immigrant community.
During a press conference on Dec. 4 announcing Minnesota's new budget forecast, Walz called the president's series of social media posts and public remarks "vile" and "racist lies."
“This creates danger,” Walz reportedly said during the news conference. “We know how these things go, they start with taunts, they turn to violence.”
In recent weeks, Trump has zeroed in on swaths of Somali people in the state, issuing several insults toward Somalia, the Somali-American immigrant population and some of Minnesota's Democratic lawmakers.
Starting on Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, Trump posted about a massive fraud and money laundering investigation in the state, in which a group of people allegedly perpetuated what the state's district attorney's office called the "largest Covid-19 fraud scheme in the country." Many of those accused in the scheme, though not all, are of Somali descent.