Ilhan Omar tells Trump ‘I can read’ during Constitution debate

Rep. Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, fired back at President Donald Trump after criticizing his understanding of the Constitution.

While the two have clashed for years dating back to Trump’s first term, they reignited their long-running feud in recent weeks when Trump suggested she should return to Somalia, where she was born. Omar’s comment comes a day after the White House shared an X-ray image of Trump waving goodbye through a McDonald’s drive-thru window in 2024, responding to a video of Omar saying she wasn’t worried about being deported.

On Tuesday, Omar criticized Trump in response to a video in which he questioned his constitutional knowledge.

“Unlike you, I know how to read and that’s why I know what the constitution says,” Omar said in a post on X.

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Rep. Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, fired back at President Donald Trump after criticizing his understanding of the Constitution. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Although Trump did not mention Omar by name, Trump took shots at Omar by criticizing other Democrats like Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas in an interview Monday with Fox News.

“I look at someone who comes from Somalia where he has nothing, he has no police, he has no army, he has nothing. All he has is crime,” Trump said in the clip. “And she comes in and tells us how to run our country. ‘The Constitution says this, the Constitution says that.’ This is all crazy.”

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Representative Ilhan Omar speaks during a markup meeting with the House Budget Committee on Capitol Hill on May 16, 2025, in Washington, DC (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“I’m not worried, I don’t know how they could take away my citizenship and deport me,” Omar said in the clip to which the White House responded, which was originally made on “The Dean Obeidallah Show” in October. “But I don’t even know why it’s such a scary threat. Like I’m no longer the 8-year-old who escaped the war. I’m grown up, my kids are grown up. Like I can go live anywhere I want.”

Trump has repeatedly indicated that Omar should return to Somalia, but told reporters in September that Somalia did not want her back.

“You know, I met the leader of Somalia, did you know that?” » Trump said. “And I suggested that maybe he would like to take her back. He said, ‘I don’t want her.'”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly indicated that Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar should return to Somalia, but told reporters in September that Somalia did not want her back. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

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However, Omar said this story was not true.

“Whether it’s denying that Somalia has a president or making up a story, President Trump is a lying buffoon,” Omar said. “No one should take this embarrassing fool seriously.”

Omar’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

When asked to comment on Omar’s statement, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital, “President Trump is right.”

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Omar’s family fled Somalia for a refugee camp in Kenya during the Somali Civil War in 1991. The United States granted her family asylum, and they lived in Arlington, Virginia, starting in 1995. The congresswoman obtained U.S. citizenship in 2000.

She was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2016 and then in 2018 to the United States House of Representatives. She is the first Somali-American woman and one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress.