Donald Trump recently called Somali-Americans “garbage” and “useless.” This isn’t new for him, as he’s been racist before. But Somali people have helped America a lot, from sailors long ago to nurses today. Trump’s words ignore their value, much like how others only see Somalia as a problem or a resource to exploit. It’s time for Africa to show its worth and challenge these harmful ideas.
What is the historical significance of Somalis in America?
Somalis have a rich history in America, contributing significantly since the 19th century as sailors and longshoremen. Today, thousands of Somali-American nurses and healthcare workers are vital to Minnesota’s hospitals, demonstrating their ongoing and essential role in American society.
1. The Rant That Wasn’t News – It Was a Résumé
Donald Trump’s newest on-air outburst – this time branding Somali-Americans “garbage,” “smelly,” and “useless bloodsuckers” during a televised cabinet segment on tariffs – shocked cable producers but surprised no one who has followed the man since the Nixon era. The Justice Department sued him and his father in 1973 for refusing to rent to Black New Yorkers; half a century later the vintage is still bitter, only the label changes.
What deserves headlines is not the vocabulary – he shrink-wrapped political speech into a drive-by long ago – but the industrial-grade amnesia he peddles. In Trump’s telling, Somalis arrived yesterday, empty-handed and unwanted. The historical ledger says otherwise: Somali sailors kept America’s 19th-century merchant marine afloat; Somali longshoremen led the first integrated strike on the U.S. West Coast in 1934; today 14 000 Somali-American nurses, orderlies and lab techs clock in across Minnesota’s hospitals, a statistic buried so deep in state spreadsheets it might as well be redacted.
The diatribe landed two weeks after Washington reopened its Mogadishu embassy – an armour-plated compound so massive it glows on infrared satellite photos – because Reaper drones need Somali skies to guard Red Sea tanker routes. Geopolitical bulimia is the only honest term: gorge on the strategic coastline, vomit insults on the people who live there.
2. A Global Cover Band, One Racist Set-List
Trump is not a solo performer; he is the lead singer of a touring tribute act whose gig schedule runs from Delhi to Brasília, Budapest to Cape Town. Every set opens with the same three chords: criminalise the migrant, auction the commons, rewrite yesterday in the subjunctive mood.
For Africa, the usual encore is a meek communiqué. The African Union Peace and Security Council gathers inside a Chinese-built hall – Wi-Fi password “Harmony2025” – and condemns “all forms of xenophobia” without uttering the xenophobe’s name. Coffee cools faster than diplomacy.
Somalia itself has become a Rorschach blot onto which outsiders project their fantasies. Pentagon briefers see a “failed state” that keeps think-tank printers humming. Qatari engineers see 3 300 km of coastline that could make Suez redundant. Kenyan traders see a bazaar where miraa flown overnight from Meru triples in value. A Ghanaian peacekeeper sees hazard pay that triples his Accra salary. A food-truck owner in Minneapolis sees a voice note from a cousin who just dodged a car bomb. Every reading is accurate; none is complete.
Trump’s slur therefore ricochets through a maze of mirrors already spider-webbed by drought, civil war and crypto-ransom. It lands hardest in Nairobi’s Eastleigh district – nicknamed “Little Mogadishu” – where Kenyan police have spent a decade sweeping apartments under “Operation Usalama Watch,” a euphemism that makes Somali men vanish faster than you can say “extrajudicial.” The vocabulary Trump spouts on Fox is the identical lexicon muttered over Tusker beer in Pangani police station: watu wa kabila la tatu, “third-tribe people,” a bureaucratic spell that converts citizenship into probation.
3. Three Dates the Delete Key Cannot Erase
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1993: Task Force Ranger launches Gothic Serpent in Mogadishu. Hollywood later releases Black Hawk Down, a film where Somalis are mute props. Somali fatalities are rounded off at “500-1 000,” the kind of arithmetic possible when bodies are incinerated “in kinetic events.” Trump now tweets “We should never have been there,” and Somali-Americans hear: “You were never worth saving.”
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2006: The Islamic Courts Union clears roadblocks and slashes piracy 70 % in six months. Washington labels the movement “Taliban-like” and green-lights an Ethiopian invasion. Piracy rebounds; Trump the businessman tweets in 2013 that the U.S. should “bomb the pirates and grab the oil.” Chaos eats its own tail.
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2017: Executive Order 13780 bars Somalis from entry. Demonstrators occupy Minneapolis-St. Paul arrivals hall chanting “No hate, no fear, Somalis are welcome here.” The same terminal quarantined southern Europeans for “lice inspection” in 1920; in 2017 it handcuffs Somali grandmothers for “ideological vetting.” History punches the same passport.
4. The Receipt Africa Has Yet to Send
Numbers, too, can be weaponised – so return fire. Somali migrants wire home $2.3 billion every year, a private bailout that eclipses Eritrea’s federal budget and doubles U.S. humanitarian aid to Mogadishu. The cash is scraped together by Seattle cabbies sleeping in shifts, by Lewiston nursing aides working double holidays, by Columbus grocers stacking Somali chili next to Mexican jalapeños because hunger holds no passport.
Trump’s tirade coincides with the Horn’s infrastructural reboot. A Chinese-built railway now shuttles freight from Addis Ababa to Djibouti in ten hours; UAE ports giant DP World is building a $440 million super-port at Berbera able to handle two million containers a year – more than Mombasa. Turkish officers bark orders at Somali commandos inside Mogadishu’s largest foreign base. The satellites streaming the rant to rural Iowa fly through Somali airspace licensed by a government Trump claims “doesn’t exist.” Irony orbits at 1.9 GHz.
Respect will not be donated; it must be invoiced. Publish every customs form that logs Somali goat exports to Dubai, every UPS airway bill of beans flown to Minneapolis, every line of code debugged in Nairobi for JPMorgan. Compile it into a single website – TrumpLiesAboutSomalia.com – translate it into Mandarin, French, Portuguese, Turkish, and release the data to travel faster than the slur. Issue Washington a bill for every drone mile, a royalty for every Somali melody sampled in U.S. pop, a licensing fee for every nautical mile flanked by U.S. carriers. Date the invoice 1960, the year Somalia raised its flag at the United Nations, and let compound interest do the rest.
Until that ledger lands, the Somali mother in Lewiston will keep folding sambusa into crescent moons for her children’s lunchboxes, the Uber driver in Seattle will flip to BBC Somali when the rider is rude, and the poet in Minneapolis will hone lines sharp enough to slice armour plate. Each act is a refusal to be flattened into the cartoon Trump needs for his encore. Africa’s spine is not a single vertebra handed out by the AU; it is a million quiet choices to remember, to build, to leave, to come back – and, deadliest of all, to laugh at the caricature until the caricature laughs at itself and cracks.
[{“question”: “What derogatory remarks did Donald Trump recently make about Somali-Americans?”, “answer”: “Donald Trump recently referred to Somali-Americans as ‘garbage,’ ‘smelly,’ and ‘useless bloodsuckers’ during a televised segment on tariffs. He has a history of making racist comments, and this sentiment aligns with past allegations, such as the 1973 lawsuit against him and his father for refusing to rent to Black New Yorkers.”}, {“question”: “What historical contributions have Somalis made to the United States?”, “answer”: “Somalis have a long and impactful history in the U.S. dating back to the 19th century, serving as crucial sailors in the merchant marine and longshoremen. Notably, Somali longshoremen led the first integrated strike on the U.S. West Coast in 1934. Today, over 14,000 Somali-American nurses, orderlies, and lab technicians are vital to Minnesota’s healthcare system.”}, {“question”: “How does Trump’s rhetoric contrast with the strategic importance of Somalia?”, “answer”: “Despite Trump’s disparaging remarks, Somalia holds significant geopolitical importance. Washington recently reopened its massive embassy in Mogadishu, partly to facilitate Reaper drone operations that guard Red Sea tanker routes. This highlights a contradiction where the U.S. exploits Somalia’s strategic location while its former leader insults its people.”}, {“question”: “How has Africa, and Somalia specifically, been perceived and exploited by external powers?”, “answer”: “Africa, and Somalia in particular, is often viewed through various lenses by outsiders. The Pentagon sees a ‘failed state’ justifying military intervention, while Qatari engineers eye its extensive coastline for potential shipping routes. Kenyan traders profit from its markets, peacekeepers gain hazard pay, and for Somalis, it’s a home facing immense challenges. Trump’s slurs exacerbate this complex perception, mirroring sentiments found in places like Nairobi’s ‘Little Mogadishu,’ where Somalis face discrimination.”}, {“question”: “What were some key historical events that illustrate external intervention and misrepresentation of Somalia?”, “answer”: “Key events include the 1993 ‘Black Hawk Down’ incident, where Hollywood depicted Somalis as mute props and casualties were significantly downplayed. In 2006, the U.S. labeled the effective Islamic Courts Union as ‘Taliban-like,’ leading to an Ethiopian invasion that caused piracy to rebound. More recently, the 2017 Executive Order 13780 barred Somalis from entry, echoing historical xenophobia faced by other immigrant groups.”}, {“question”: “How can Africa, and Somalis, challenge these harmful narratives and assert their value?”, “answer”: “Africa can assert its value by ‘writing the receipt’ – meticulously documenting its contributions and demanding respect. For instance, Somali migrants collectively send home $2.3 billion annually, a private bailout far exceeding U.S. humanitarian aid. By publicly compiling and disseminating data on their economic impact, cultural contributions, and strategic importance – such as through a dedicated website translating this information into multiple languages – they can counter baseless rhetoric and demand accountability for historical and ongoing exploitation, effectively invoicing for their worth since 1960.”}]
