By Amelia Nierenberg and Hussein Mohamed. New York Times
Hussein Mohamed reported from Mogadishu, Somalia

Somalia’s leader said Wednesday that it was “better not to respond” a day after President Trump called Somali immigrants “garbage” during a xenophobic tirade.

“We are not the only country that Trump insults,” Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre told an audience at an innovation summit in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, in response to a question about Mr. Trump’s comments, according to video published by Shabelle TV, a local media network. “Sometimes it’s better not to respond,” he said.

Somalia, a nation of 19 million people in the Horn of Africa, has long regarded the United States as a key ally in the fight against the Al Shabab terrorist group. Though the Trump administration has slashed foreign aid budgets in recent months, the United States gave around $128 million to Somalia in the 2025 fiscal year.

But on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the country “stinks” and that he did not want Somali immigrants in the United States. “We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” Mr. Trump said at a cabinet meeting at the White House.

In Somalia on Wednesday, some people were angry that their government had not criticized Mr. Trump’s comments.

“Somali leaders and politicians have to defend the nation and the national interests,” said Abdullahi Omar, 35, a trader in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. “Why have you kept your mouth shut about Trump’s hate speech toward our people?”

Others were frustrated by what they saw as a pattern of disrespect toward Africa from Mr. Trump, who has a history of insulting Black people, particularly those from African countries.

“We are not garbage,” said Ali Yahye, 24, a graphic designer in Mogadishu. “Trump’s remarks were baseless and the Somali community in the U.S. has made a lot of contributions to the country.”

Mr. Trump has used such rhetoric throughout his rise in politics, including in his first term as president, when he demanded to know why the United States would accept immigrants from Haiti and African nations, which he described as “shithole countries,” rather than, say, Norway.

But he has long been especially focused on Somalis in the United States, and in particular, on Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, who came to the United States from Somalia as a refugee and became a citizen 25 years ago.

Read more: On Trump’s Insults, Somalia’s Prime Minister Says ‘It’s Better Not to Respond’

Source: Nytimes