In July of last year, Salman Fiqy stood front row behind President Trump during a campaign rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota. 

Fiqy, who first immigrated to the United States from Somalia in 2009, said he got the call from Mr. Trump's campaign team to help drum up support for the Republican ahead of the general election. 

He said he was proud to do it. Now, as a large-scale ICE operation against Somalis in the Twin Cities begins, preceded by the president repeatedly making sweeping derogatory comments about Somalis, Fiqy's support for the Republican Party is over. 

"We felt betrayal by the president, the one we organized for and did an outreach for," Fiqy said. 

After threatening to end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota, Mr. Trump escalated his attack on Somali Minnesotans this week by calling them "garbage." 

CBS News is reporting that ICE is now targeting Somali people with final deportation orders in Minneapolis and St. Paul; Mr. Trump did not make that kind of distinction during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, instead stating, "I don't want [Somalis] in our country." 

Wednesday, he doubled down, saying, "The Somalians [sic] should be out of here. They've destroyed our country." 

His comments, presented without evidence, have shaken people like Fiqy, who saw an opportunity for the GOP to gain further ground in the Somali community.

"That is dehumanizing and very demeaning rhetoric," Fiqy said.

In 2024, data from the Minnesota Secretary of State shows that Fiqy was not an anomaly. While Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz won handily in Somali-strong districts, the democratic ticket underperformed compared to President Biden's numbers in 2020. In state house district 60B, for example, Biden won 87.61% of the vote. This dropped to 80.83% in 2024 with Harris at the top of the ticket; meanwhile, Trump's share of the vote rose about five percentage points, going from 9.87% in 2020 to 15.03% in 2024. 

Fiqy said that this change in the Cedar-Riverside area voter turnout was down to a few factors; some Somalis, he said, are more inclined to side with conservative policies when it comes to issues like the economy, public safety and education. He also noted that many muslim communities became disillusioned with how the Biden Administration handled the war in Gaza, meaning those that would typically vote Democrat either stayed home on election day or looked for an alternative. 

Imam Tawakal Ismail, a self-described religious leader in Minnesota, is joining Fiqy in disavowing his connection to the GOP at both the local and national levels. He released a statement on Wednesday night expressing disappointment that Minnesota Republicans did not come out in support of Somali people after the president's remarks. 

"We expected leadership that stands up for truth and justice. That did not happen," Ismail said. 

State Republican leadership took questions about the president's attacks on Somali Minnesotans on Thursday during a press conference on the state's budget outlook. While GOP House Speaker Lisa Demuth, State Sen. Eric Pratt, and House Floor Leader Harry Niska indicated that they disagree with the president's characterization of all Somalis, none directly condemned his comments or actions. 

"In no way do I believe any community is all bad, just like I don't believe any community is all good. We need to hold fraudsters in any community accountable for their actions," Demuth said. 

Mr. Trump's focus on Somali Minnesotans seems to revolve around a series of multimillion-dollar fraud schemes in the state. There are now more than 75 defendants in what's known as the Feeding Our Future fraud case, described as the "largest pandemic fraud in the United States." Many of the people charged in the case are of Somali descent, though the group's founder and alleged "mastermind," Aimee Bock, is White. 

Local Somali leaders and advocates have said that the actions of individuals cannot define an entire community. 

Of the approximate 80,000 Somali people in Minnesota, Census Bureau figures from 2024 show that about 95% are U.S. citizens. More than half were born in the United States; most Somali-born immigrants entered the country before 2010.