The White House made headlines this week after sharing a tongue-in-cheek post appearing to mock Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) over her comments about deportation.
On Monday, the official White House account on X (formerly Twitter) posted an image of President Donald Trump smiling and waving through a McDonald’s drive-thru window — a playful response to a video clip of Omar saying she wasn’t worried about being deported.
“I have no worry, I don’t know how they’d take away my citizenship and like deport me,” Omar said in the clip, taken from an October appearance on The Dean Obeidallah Show. “But I don’t even know like why that’s such a scary threat. Like I’m not the 8-year-old who escaped war anymore. I’m grown, my kids are grown. Like I could go live wherever I want.”
The photo of Trump came from an October 2024 campaign stop in Pennsylvania, where he famously jumped behind the counter at a McDonald’s and worked the fry station — a moment that showcased his connection to everyday Americans.
Omar’s background is well known. Her family fled war-torn Somalia in 1991 and spent several years in a Kenyan refugee camp before being granted asylum in the United States. The family settled first in Arlington, Virginia, in 1995 and later moved to Minneapolis in 1997. Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000.
Trump, who has long been one of Omar’s most vocal critics, recently suggested that the controversial congresswoman “should go back” to Somalia — echoing his well-known stance that lawmakers who disparage America might be happier elsewhere. On Nov. 1, he posted on Truth Social:
“She should go back!”
The post included a video of Omar speaking in Somali.
Trump has also claimed that Somalia’s leadership isn’t exactly eager to welcome her home.
“You know, I met the head of Somalia, did you know that?” Trump told reporters in September. “And I suggested that maybe he’d like to take her back. He said, ‘I don’t want her.’”
Omar quickly fired back, accusing the president of fabricating the story.
“From denying Somalia had a president to making up a story, President Trump is a lying buffoon,” she said. “No one should take this embarrassing fool seriously.”
The back-and-forth is just the latest in a long-running feud between Trump and Omar, a member of the far-left progressive group known as “The Squad.” During his first term, Trump criticized the group for constantly attacking the United States, saying they should “go back” to their “broken and crime-infested” countries rather than tearing down the nation that gave them so much opportunity.
Omar responded at the time by accusing Trump of racism, posting on social media:
“You are stoking white nationalism bc you are angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda.”
Omar was first elected to Congress in 2018 after a brief stint in Minnesota’s state legislature. She became the first Somali-American woman and one of the first Muslim women ever elected to the U.S. House — and one of the most divisive figures in Washington ever since.
