Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz didn’t hold back Thursday after President Donald Trump launched a Thanksgiving weekend tirade targeting him.
“Release the MRI results,” Walz wrote on X, referencing Trump’s claim last month that he underwent an MRI at Walter Reed Military Center—a scan whose results the White House has yet to disclose.
Trump’s post on Truth Social went far beyond a personal jab, attacking Walz with a slur used to demean people with disabilities and criticizing him for what Trump claimed is inaction on Minnesota’s Somali refugee population. According to Trump, Walz “does nothing” regarding refugees, either “through fear, incompetence, or both.”
“Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota,” Trump wrote. “Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for ‘prey’ as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone.”
He went on to say: “The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both, while the worst “Congressman/woman” in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab, and who probably came into the U.S.A. illegally in that you are not allowed to marry your brother, does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how “badly” she is treated, when her place of origin is a decadent, backward, and crime ridden nation, which is essentially not even a country for lack of Government, Military, Police, schools, etc…”
Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, with roughly 107,000 residents as of 2024, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Yet Congress reported in August that only 705 Somalis in the U.S. have temporary protected status.
Last Friday, Trump ended legal protections for Somali residents in Minnesota “effective immediately,” claiming that “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State.” His administration is also reviewing green cards issued to migrants from Somalia and 18 other countries after a shooting in which two National Guard members were targeted. The suspected shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who came to the U.S. in 2021.
One of the victims, 20-year-old Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, died Thursday. U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains hospitalized in critical condition.
By turning Trump’s personal health claims into a public challenge, Walz’s brief but pointed response cut through the chaos of the president’s sweeping accusations.
